Old Wounds

Darth Maul, with replacement bionic legs attached to his upper torso, seeks out the Lars homestead to find and avenge himself upon Obi-Wan Kenobi. Upon his arrival he is met by Owen Lars, whom he swiftly disarms. Beru screams, but it is not until Maul threatens the infant Luke in her arms that Kenobi finally reveals himself, asking whether Palpatine knows he is still alive. Maul replies that he neither knows, nor cares, about his former master, or even about the ancient feud between Jedi and Sith. Maul claims to have been tracking Kenobi for years, just missing him on his missions to Kamino, Geonosis, and Mustafar and to have killed many witnesses on Polis Massa before finally gaining crucial information in Mos Espa from an aged Toydarian junk dealer, whom he then murdered.

Maul gloats that he knew threatening Luke would bring his old adversary out into the open. Kenobi, not wanting Luke to come to any harm, surprises his hunter by leaping from underneath the sand. Former Jedi and former Sith fight it out, and during the fight Maul loses an arm, and after that the duel continues until Kenobi catches Maul off guard, the muzzle of his deactivated lightsaber pressed to his defenseless opponent's forehead.

Kenobi is then assailed by the memories of losses he has suffered in the past to servants of the the dark side: Qui-Gon Jinn's murder by Maul on Naboo; Mace Windu falling from Palpatine's office on Coruscant; Padmé Amidala dying on the medical table on Polis Massa; and Anakin's horrific maiming at Kenobi's own hands on Mustafar. Seized with sudden hatred and a desire for vengeance, Kenobi is tempted to to ignite his weapon and kill the defenseless Zabrak instantly.

Before Kenobi can act upon (or perhaps even make) that fateful choice, Lars shoots Maul in the head with his recovered blaster rifle. Kenobi says he will take the corpse and burn it in the Dune Sea. Owen, thinking of the safety of his wife and young ward, tells Kenobi never again to return to the Lars homestead, fearing his presence might attract further unwanted attention. But as he leaves, Obi-Wan telepathically tells the toddler Luke that, though they might not see him, he will never be far away.

When questioned about the timeline for the stories of Star Wars: Visionaries, Leland Chee stated that this story was non-canon. However, The Story of General Grievous: Lord of War by Abel G. Peña has a sentence which implies "Old Wounds" may just be canon: "The Soulless One was eventually tracked down by a cyborg acquaintance of Obi-Wan's, an old enemy who anonymously reported the ship to the local Imperial authorities". Additionally, although Watto is shown to be still alive in 1 ABY in Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided, the Toydarian in this story is never explicitly identified as Watto.

Darth Maul's appearance in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, starting in the episode "Revenge," was based on his design from "Old Wounds."

• Star Wars: Visionaries
• Star Wars Omnibus: Wild Space Volume 2
• Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Empire Vol. 4
• Star Wars Legends: The Empire Omnibus Vol. 2