Maul's lips formed into a cruel, satisfied smile.

Ezra was his. The boy had fallen perfectly into his web; making him turn against his allies had been too easy; now he was his.

The security forces had served him perfectly. The magna droids Ezra had fought - and surprisingly well, too - made part of Maul believe that the force had orchestrated this for him. Ezra was, by everything he'd seen so far, meant to be his. Maul allowed himself a satisfied smirk.

The boy's 'master', Kanan Jarrus, had failed. His apprentice was Maul's now. Ezra's mind was open to him so utterly it might have been Maul's own. The zabrak sensed as Ezra fought how much he could do when properly motivated. Granted, the AI of each droid was a generation old at the least. Yet it wasn't that Ezra had fought two maga droids simultaneously and won that gave Maul satisfaction: it was how the boy did it.

He charged the droids with frustration, at his situation mainly, Maul knew. He read Ezra's thoughts as he charged, and noticed how angry they were; it had made Maul smirk let out mirthful chuckle.

The boy had fought angry; the antithesis of everything his mentor had taught him. It fueled each of his strikes, making them heavy with sixteen-years worth of pent-up frustration at the universe. Maul could understand; he'd seen all Ezra had been put through by fate. Not that it gained him any sympathy from the zabrak; it only gained him more ways of torture. The type of torture that could never be fully expressed, as noone who knew the boy could empathize with him. In essence, the perfect tool to use when he got Ezra to Dathomir.

Alas, he had to get the boy to Dathomir first.

Not an impossible feat. A difficult one, certainly; even with all that Maul had done, this was unprecedented for him. Other sith could have accomplished this - the feats attributed of the ancient sith and those of the Bane lineage were legendary - but Maul was not within their ranks. This whole business with Ezra was a risk-laden affair to a degree Maul was unfamiliar with. The only comparison he had was Kenobi, but the jedi in that case was unpredictable in a physical sense. Ezra was unpredictable in a metaphysical sense. Taking total control of his mind and body would be temporary; Maul wasn't the force magick adept Talzin had been. But, Ezra's mental defenses were already shattered.

But, it seemed, the boy had some fight left in him.

Despite being downtrodden horribly, Ezra's will was intact. And it made it infuriatingly difficult for Maul to make progress. He fought for every single metaphorical inch like an alley cat did for scraps from behind a popular restaurant. And, much to Maul's shock, he found it impossible to succeed. In Maul's state, at least; after at least two hours of wrestling with complicated and unwieldy nightsister rituals, the zabrak was unable to sustain his efforts.

He withdrew.

He didn't falter; it was more that he realised he couldn't sustain the ritual. Sighing in frustration, Maul opened his eyes.

The basin had the same appearance as when he started; the stone was still just as unnerving. Maul became aware of the sweat that saturated his brow. He relaxed his hands, the first vestiges of fatigue spreading throughout him. He purged all those vestiges. Instead he sat and crossed his legs. Meditation, no matter how he might have been displeased with it early in his training, was the best choice.

Before he'd been sure that Ezra was his, but now part of him questioned that. The boy, despite having been beaten down mentally for going on a month now, hadn't had his will broken. Maul, as much as it stung his pride, had to admit that the boy had will. But will was finite, Maul also knew, and as such promised himself that he'd attack again, and this time succeed.

He considered it inevitable.

Kanan Jarrus felt mounting stress as he zeroed in on his apprentice's location. He'd spent at least fifteen standard minutes slicing through each door, each one with equally thick durasteel. He hadn't smelt nor felt ozone like that since his days Depa Billaba. Bending over to go through the holes made his back complain within moments. Crouching and un-crouching repeatedly made his body complain to him vehemently. Kanan ignored the nerve signals, focused solely on finding Ezra.

Within a quarter of an hour he had arrived to the blast door that had separated him and Ezra earlier.

It was open.

Kanan was unnerved. He saw the mangled remains of two magna droids, their bodies in a collective pile. Their electro-staffs were still clutched in their robotic hands, yet the equivalent for eyes the droids had were no longer glowing. Pods lined the walls of the hallway, each containing a magna droid with electro-staff included. Two were open, presumably the ones lying against the wall at the other end of the hall. This raised questions. Significant and perturbing questions.

Kanan saw that Ezra's cloak was singed in several places. The ex jedi felt uncertainty wash over him. Getting to one knee next to his apprentice, Kanan turned Ezra over so he saw his face. It seemed fairly normal, and he almost looked at peace; his eyes were closed, and shoulders rising and falling with regular rhythm. His hair was unkempt and darkened with sweat. Kanan frowned.

"What happened to you, Ezra?"

He didn't receive a response from his apprentice. He, much like the force at the moment, was silent. Kanan's more paternal part urged him to grab Ezra and run, abandoning the base and bringing his apprentice back to Yavin IV. But if he did, he might not know what secrets the base held. Kanan checked Ezra's pulse, and once satisfied that he was stable, Kanan proceeded cautiously down the hallway.

He turned a corner and was met with a control room of a sort, much like the holos he'd been shown from other Separatist outposts captured by the republic. A single console was in the center of the room, on an elevated pedestal. More consoles lined the walls, all sharing a fine layer of dust. Kanan walked up to the main console, finding the switch to turn it on and flicking it. A red ball sprung up.

"Good rotation, sir. Please identify yourself." It said. Kanan's frown deepened.

Were he to identify himself the droids in the hallway he'd walked through would probably activate and target him - or worse, Ezra. He realised then how unprepared they'd been. Sighing, Kanan turned, promising himself that the situation would be resolved.

Turning, unsatisfied, Kanan made his way back to Ezra and carried him out of the outpost, taking at least double the time he took initially. The outpost became one mass a of durasteel and permacrete as a numb Kanan began to process what he thought had happened over the last few hours.

Ezra had turned on them, running away from the only people he possibly trusted; he'd knocked Sabine out for at least two hours - she rarely did anything in halves. Then he was separated from them for at least three hours and then Kanan found him lying in a heap, on the floor with two magna droids at least a dozen meters away from him; not the mention the fact that they were mangled, too.

Kanan sighed. A moment after he did so, he jumped as Ezra stirred. His movement stopped as he blinked several times, opening his eyes up a crack and then immediately closing them. He looked weak. After Ezra could keep his eyelids open for more than a few seconds, Kanan asked,

"Can you walk?"

That would've gotten a snarky remark a year ago. Now all it got Kanan was a nod. Slowly, Kanan let Ezra down towards the floor. The teen steadied himself within moments. He lowered his hood, which had fallen to cover his face. Ezra then looked up at Kanan; his face was contorted into intense regret.

"I-I'm sorry," He sputtered. "I honestly don't know what happened…" ezra sighed, "It just happened so suddenly; you guys just morphed into inquisitors," kanan's brow shot up behind his mask. His hood was down, too, and his eyes narrowed, though it wasn't seen by Ezra; not that the teen would need any signs like that. His story sounded preposterous. And Ezra understood that fact.

"Look, I don't know how or why it happened; it just did. I saw three inquisitors and ran."

Kanan's lips formed into a frown.

"Is this you or Maul talking, Ezra?" This statement should've gained an incredulous look, yet it didn't; instead Ezra shook his head grimly.

"Me... for now." Alarm sparked in Kanan's mind. For now?

"What'd you mean by 'For now.'?" ezra's eyes darkened.

"Maul went farther this time," ezra said, cringing a bit as Kanan's expression soured. "He attacked me personally." kanan crossed his arms, stance showing suspicion. Ezra quickly clarified what he meant. "He tried to take control of me as a person," The teen stated, as matter-of-factly as he could.

"You know everybody except me isn't gonna believe that, right?" ezra nodded, looking, in rebellion of his situation, slightly hopeful.

"You believe me?" He asked. Kanan was silent for a few seconds.

"...I don't know." he finally said with a sigh, "If what you say is true, and Maul tried to take control, how do I know Maul isn't talking to me?" ezra blinked. A tense second passed; Kanan truly couldn't know if he was really talking to Ezra, and the latter couldn't prove it. There wasn't a code word to prove it, because even if there was, both Ezra and Kanan would have to know it - and Maul knew everything Ezra knew. Ezra's shoulders slumped.

"Yes, there really is no way for him to know, is there?" ezra grit his teeth. Kanan's frown deepened at that.

"You have to have faith in Ezra," The teen said sadly. While Kanan was thinking, Maul cut into Ezra's thoughts.

"Do you have faith in yourself, apprentice?"

AN: Hello there. Happy memorial day weekend (in the US, at least). I'm still on the fence with this chapter, but I hope it lives up to the standard of quality I have. Any reviews/follows/favs