Ezra was asleep in bed, but he wasn't sleeping well. He hasn't been sleeping well for the past couple of nights.
He had another Malachor nightmare again, and Maul kept on coming into his dreams. He was certain that he was coming back for him again tonight.
The jedi was now on Malachor, where everything changed, where Maul changed the Ezra the crew once knew. He knew that this was all a vision in his dreams, but this was really reality to him. "Ezra." said a voice filled with hatred within him. "Ezra, come closer, my apprentice." the voice said again. "No! This is all a dream! I will not let you harm me again in my dreams, Maul!" Ezra retorted. "Why would I harm you? I don't want to harm you, I want to make you more powerful." Maul replied. "You're lying! You want me to turn on my friends, my family! I will not obey you, Maul! You were the reason why everything had to be the way it had to be on Malachor! You may have ruined Kanan, but I will not let you ruin me or my friends!" Ezra cried out.
All of a sudden, in a poof of red smoke, Maul appeared before Ezra. "Get away from me!" "Ezra, you don't understand what you're getting yourself into, my apprentice. Now submit yourself to me, because if you don't..." Maul paused when Ezra saw the entire crew appear before him, all on their knees and afraid. "Your friends will die." Maul proceeded slash the mask that Kanan wore over his eyes, the eye mask falling off, revealing Kanan's blind eyes. "You blinded my master and took him from me! I will not let you take my friends!" Ezra cried out.
"Then submit yourself to me, my apprentice." "I am not your apprentice!" "If you will not submit yourself, you. Will. Be. Destroyed! You're useless!" Maul activated his red sabers and sent them flying at Ezra. Luckily he managed to duck, activating his blue lightsaber. "I will not let you ruin me! I will push you out of here!" Ezra said, locking blades with Maul.
"Well, it seems as if your hatred is fueling inside you already. Use it, boy!" Maul went for an open part of Ezra, but he managed to block it in the nick of time. "Get out of my head!" Ezra cried out.
As the two wielders exchanged blows, Maul finally prevailed when he managed to knock Ezra off his feet, pointing his blade at him. "You are worthless, Ezra. You will give yourself to me, even if I have to make the necessary consequences." Ezra knew exactly what he meant. Maul was going to kill his friends. "No! You will not kill them!" the boy cried out in anger. Maul took a good luck at the crew, then snapped back to Ezra.
"Sorry, my apprentice, but what must be done must be done." "NO!" Maul threw his lightsaber at the crew, tears running down Ezra's eyes as he saw their fates happen before his very own eyes. His family, his friends, everything that he cared for since he first met them will all be gone, and he will be Maul's. And then one by one, Maul's red blades made short work of Ezra's friends, all of them dropping to the ground.
"Nooo!" Ezra cried out, shooting up in the bed, panting hard. He looked around, making sure that he wasn't on Malachor. This was immense relief for him when he found out that he was in his room on the Ghost, but now afraid of Maul even more now. He witnessed him take all of his friends on Malachor earlier, and though it was a dream, Maul invaded him again in his sleep, this time going as far as to kill the ones he cared about.
Ezra couldn't sleep well following this dramatic dream, and he couldn't sleep well following that. By the time morning came, he was a mess. He was afraid, afraid of what would happen to his new family, afraid of what would happen to those he really cares about, and most importantly, afraid of becoming Maul's errand boy.
The crew noticed this during breakfast, and so decided to have him open up about it. "Ezra, are you okay?" Kanan asked him. Ezra didn't respond, his body shaking, him not taking a bite of his breakfast or sipping his water, tearing up. "Ezra, what's wrong?" Hera opened up. He refused to speak again. "Ezra, talk to us. It's okay." Sabine assured him. Even with the girl he had a crush on trying to help him, he still refused to speak up, and it only got him even more emotional. "Kid, you can tell us anything. We won't force you, but it's best to just open up rather than hold it inside." Zeb said. "Zeb's right, Ez. Just talk to us about what's going on, okay? I promise you that nothing's going to happen." Kanan convinced him.
Ezra just sighed, sipping his water, chugging it down rather quickly. He then prepared to tell the crew what they wanted to here. "Guys, just promise me that nothing's going to happen to either of you." he said. "Ezra, as long as you're with us on the Ghost, nothing's going to happen to either of us. We promise you that." Hera assured him, the crew nodding. "Promise?" Ezra asked. "Promises are promises." Sabine assured him.
Ezra sighed, then cut to the chase. "Last night, I had another nightmare, a nightmare about Malachor again. Maul got into my dreams for whatever number of times he has done that, and he got into another one of my dreams last night. I was on Malachor with him, and he tried to make me his. He threatened that if I didn't submit to him, he would have killed you. I saw you all there, he held you guys. Then me and him got in a saber fight, then, then..." Ezra started tearing up, covering his face with his hands, tears going into them. "What happened?" Kanan asked. Ezra cried harder, then pulled his face back up. "Maul, he, he..." "Ezra, just tell us. Like we all said earlier, nothing is going to happen to either of us." Hera told him.
"He...killed you all. He just took you all away from me. You all dropped to Malachor's floor, you all died! If you died in my dream than you're all gonna die for sure!" Ezra started walking way, his crying becoming heavier now. "Ezra, let us hel-" Ezra turned to face everybody, his eyes now more red from the immense emotional pain. "Leave me alone, Kanan! All of you just leave me alone!" Ezra took off back to his room, leaving the rest of the gang in the kitchen.
"My god. I've never seen him so upset before." Hera commented. "Me too. He's never been this way." Sabine replied. "All of you just stay away from him for now. I'll go and talk to him." Kanan told the others. "But, Kanan, what if he denies talking to you?" Zeb asked. "Then we'll give him the space he needs until then." Kanan got up and left the kitchen, heading over to find Ezra.
He sauntered over to his room, hearing sounds of crying through the door. "Ezra." Kanan said through the door. Ezra ignored him. "Ezra, I just want to talk to you." Kanan informed him. "Leave me alone!" his padawan called through his side of the door in anger and sadness. "Ezra, please, let me help you." Kanan begged. He had never seen his student like this ever, and he was going to help him get through this one way or another.
"Kanan, what's the point even? You are going to die on Malachor, I saw you all die before me! It's too late to help me! I'm...his." Kanan then opened the door using the panel next to it, walking in concerned. "What part of leave me alone did you not understand!?" Ezra growled at him. "Ezra, please calm down. I can't stand to see you like this, we all can't. We're all worried for you. Please, just let us help you. What you saw there was all a dream, non of this is real. We are still alive and well, and we don't plan on dying anytime soon." Kanan informed him, taking a seat next to Ezra on the bottom bunk.
"Yeah right." Ezra scoffed. "A dream or not, it looked dramatic enough. I've never been more afraid of losing you guys, especially at the hands of...him." Kanan put an arm around Ezra and pulled him in closer, Ezra crying into Kanan's chest. "It's alright." Kanan said, cooing him. "That was all just a dream, nothing's gonna happen to us, Ezra, alright?" Ezra sobbed a bit further before pulling himself away from Kanan, his eyes meeting Kanan's.
"Really?" he asked, sobbing and wiping several tears from his eyes. "Really. What Maul tried to do was play a vision that would get fear into you about losing us, but non of that is going to happen. Ezra, I promise you that as long as you are with us on the Ghost, nothing's gonna happen to either of us. We will always be a family no matter what, and we love you too much. You don't have to lose another family, Ezra. We will always be there for you, I will always be there for you, no matter what. Okay?"
Ezra looked up at Kanan, now showing some relief now that Kanan convinced him to not believe what he really saw. Ezra took Kanan in a hug. "Thank you, for being there for me when I need you the most, Kanan." he said, sobbing into Kanan's shoulder.
"Just remember, Ezra. No matter what happens, we are a family, and we will always be there for you."