(A/N)- *peeks in*
Hello yes, I believe you wanted a climactic chapter right?
Never fear! Here she be. Enjoy, my lovelies!
Disclaimer: Haaaaaaa. Nope, nope, and no.
Fight Through
Ezra waited.
The tension in the air between the two combatants was chokingly thick, fear still pinging around inside the boy as he tried to keep his mind clear, tried not to entertain all the terrible thoughts about what Maul would do to him if he lost.
He couldn't lose. His friends had found him. They were coming for him. He wasn't letting Maul take him away from them again.
The resolution hardened inside him, repeating along with the soothing words of the code. He raised his blade higher, feet shifting, planting firmly.
There came a warning tingle in the Force.
Ezra flashed his blade up.
The tension snapped like a metal wire as Maul hurled at him, red blades a whirling flurry of spins and thrusts. Ezra blocked carefully, letting himself take a few steps backward to exhaust most of the strikes' strength in the open air, the heat from the saber blades whooshing loudly. But he didn't let Maul keep driving him back down the tunnel.
As soon as there was a gap in Maul's attacks Ezra lunged, slanting his green blade towards Maul's middle.
He was blocked, as he'd expected, but used the momentum from the deflect to shift position, moving closer to the tunnel wall. Maul had to circle in response, moving away from the exit opening, no longer blocking the way into the wider cavern where they had spent their first night.
Maul realized immediately what Ezra had done and drove forward as Ezra started his dodge to the side, trying to prevent him from moving that way. Ezra felt the red heat of the double blades slashing through the wall behind his back, as he outmaneuvered Maul just enough to fling himself into the clear.
He felt relief tingling in his head at being out of the tunnel—perhaps his crawl through the wall had made him a bit more claustrophobic than he'd thought—but it was short-lived as Maul came at him again, blades flashing viciously, so quick Ezra could barely see them.
Ezra reacted from instinct, from muscle memory, relying more and more on the Force to move his body for him. He quickly thought through his options.
Overpowering Maul was impossible and he knew it. Being aggressive with his own strikes would only tire him out and make him desperate, sloppy. No, he would stay on the defensive. Evade and dodge. Use his agility and smaller frame. He thought back through their daily duels up to this point, remembering the sessions that had lasted the longest; they were always the ones where Ezra had played to his strengths as a fighter. Used the environment, used his cleverness, been unorthodox in his methods.
All right then. Let Maul be the aggressor. Let him tire himself out for once. Ezra just had to keep him at bay long enough to get an opening.
His arms moved in quick jerks, blocking and deflecting blow after blow that Maul brought crashing down on him.
Ezra's feet trotted lightly backwards, leading the fight, slowly bringing them across the cavern towards the other side tunnel. He paid a darting glance towards it, then brought his eyes forward again, in time to skid a strike off Maul's blade, throwing the man off-balance briefly.
Maul seemed to favor one leg as he steadied his feet again. Ezra peeked down, observing the black carbon scoring smudge across the knee piece of Maul's right metal limb.
He made a note of that for later. He backed up with a running jog, waiting for Maul's next barrage.
Maul didn't disappoint, flourishing his blade before spinning it towards Ezra's head.
Ezra leaned back, letting it pass dangerously close to his face, caught the second follow-up strike with a swift underhand and dodged again, bringing them closer to the other side tunnel.
He kept the tactic up for two more clashes, evading the lancing double blades, keeping just out of Maul's reach.
Maul seemed to grow frustrated with his slippery movements, bringing his saber sweeping up, forcing Ezra to block high while the ex-Sith directed a Force Push into his stomach.
Ezra knocked backwards, breathless for a moment, rolling up as soon as his back hit the ground. His somersault put him back on his feet quickly, and exactly where he wanted to be; he ran up a few paces into the tunnel and turned to wait for Maul.
The man lunged, blades glancing off the narrow walls and sending sparks popping as he followed Ezra up the tunnel.
He thrust sharply at the boy.
Ezra swung his blade from right to left, knocking the red tip aside, sending it stabbing into the wall.
One hand let go of the hilt and fisted, punching hard into the tattooed face.
Maul grunted as his head snapped back.
Ezra whirled his saber up, slashing it across the stalagmites in the ceiling and raining down his own shower of sparks onto them.
Maul covered his face with one hand, stepping back to avoid, as Ezra finished turning and conserved momentum by whipping around and bolting up the tunnel.
The ground sloped underneath him, gradually tilting up. Ezra spotted a light and an opening up ahead and moved faster, wanting to get a bead on the new terrain before he had to contend with Maul again. Vibrations jolted up through his shins as his feet pounded.
He cleared the opening and immediately had to jerk back, the ground suddenly falling away under his feet.
Ezra skidded, pinwheeling his arms a moment, leaning back frantically to keep from spilling over the edge.
Regaining his balance he took a quick look around at the new chamber.
The cliff dropped away into a deep, cavernous well, frozen water sloshing at the bottom, ice pieces floating on the surface. Several snow-covered pillars stabbed up from the water, rising to various levels, and shelves lined the walls as well, as though there had been a pathway down a long time ago. Everything gradually met at a wide shorebank, not unlike the one by the frozen lake, but this one lined and covered with solid ice, dripping down the walls, hanging in giant icicles, glittering in the faint beams of sunlight that slanted across the chamber from cracks in the ceiling.
Ezra's head whipped back once as he heard Maul thundering up the tunnel behind him and then he faced forward again, inhaling, pushing off from the very edge of the cliff with one foot, the Force assisting his leap to the first pillar.
He stumbled a bit as he landed heavily on the top, one palm pushing off the ice for support. Getting his feet under him he straightened, heart tight, turning to face the tunnel opening.
Maul had slowed upon approaching the cliff's edge, burning glare studying the new environment for a moment before he backed up.
His growl sounded low across the chamber as he jumped.
Ezra took a nervous step back as Maul landed with a booming crunch! on top of the pillar with him. The rock beneath the Zabrak's metal feet cracked from the impact.
Maul slowly uncoiled, like a wary predator considering its prey. Ezra's eyes scrunched into a defiant glare as his arms stiffened, hands tightening around his saber.
One red saber blade swung back and over and the fight began again.
Crashing sabers exchanged quick blows. Ezra let Maul drive him back towards the edge, springing back into the open air right as Maul was letting loose a heavy horizontal swing.
Maul's face spasmed with fury as he watched Ezra land on the next nearest pillar.
"You can't evade forever!" he shouted.
The echo bounced off the cavern walls, reverberating harshly, and a second later Maul flung himself down to the next pillar, growing more infuriated as Ezra ducked his two-handed overhead strike, evading yet again.
I don't have to evade forever, Ezra replied inside his head. Just long enough.
Still, he met Maul's blade with his own, resounding crashes bouncing off the icy walls. There was a delicate balance to strike between making Maul angry enough to become sloppy, and making him too angry, so that he swelled with the overwhelming force of the Dark Side.
His brain methodically numbered off block positions as he fended Maul off.
Ezra caught a narrow uppercut from Maul's saber on his, batting it down towards the ground, pressing in. He lunged forward, shoulder-checking the man in the chest.
Maul gave a winded grunt and staggered back, but just as quickly drew his elbow back and struck Ezra across the face.
BAM!
Ezra saw stars for a terrifying moment, stumbling, tripping and tumbling over, unable to tell where he was until his legs slipped out into open air.
He gasped, shaking himself back alert, grabbing frantically at the edges of the pillar.
He managed to catch himself enough from falling completely off. Cold terror seized his heart at his vulnerable position, his head jerking up to see Maul already advancing towards him.
The red saber swung down towards his arms.
Ezra let go.
He dropped several meters before latching onto another handhold in the rock, his right shoulder pulling roughly. Ezra grimaced, the pain shooting though him. He hoped he hadn't dislocated it again.
He craned his head up, throat tight, seeing Maul standing at the edge, looming, glaring down.
No sooner had the man bent down, flatting his stomach to the rocks and reaching a hand out to try and snatch him than Ezra braced his legs on the pillar and shoved away.
He twisted in the air, the Force directing his leap, grabbing hold of another pillar with both hands this time. His left fingers squeezed tight around his saber and his precarious handhold, willing himself not to drop his weapon.
His feet scratched on the rock, trying to find purchase. He was acutely aware of Maul at his back, and the Force sounded a shrill warning that rang down his spine.
Ezra flinched, ducking into the pillar as sizzling plasma gashed the rock just over his head. He heard the whoosh of air as the saber was recalled back to Maul's hand, and an ominous creaking of rending rock inside the pillar.
Inhaling shakily, Ezra braced himself.
The pillar shifted beneath his arms, leaning, beginning to crumble apart. Ezra held on until his piece was almost at a thirty-five degree angle and then he pushed up, scrambling up the falling chunk. The Force filled his head, guiding his frantic steps as he ran up the collapsing pillar.
It collided with another pillar, and then the nearest wall, rock splintering and sending up dust clouds and bits of rubble. Ezra's feet stepped lightly over broken pieces as he kept just ahead of the debris, gaining altitude.
He leaped out as the last piece fell beneath his feet, sailing through open air a moment before collapsing onto his arms onto a wide shelf set in the wall.
He lay there only a moment, before shoving up to his feet, about-facing with his lightsaber.
Maul stared at him from across the gap, frowning, seemingly annoyed at the distance he would now have to cover to reach him.
Ezra didn't give him time to think about it. His free hand raised, his eyes closing as he called upon the Force.
Debris from the crashed pillars shifted, rising into the air, soaring up to frame him.
He shoved the cluster towards Maul.
Maul caught it, left hand flashing up, stopping the rocks and sharp bits of ice in midair.
He hefted them back at Ezra.
Ezra snapped open his eyes and narrowed them, his teeth gritting, expending more effort. The pieces slowed, stopping still between them, their wills contending against each other until—
Cra-Crackle!
Rock and ice splintered, shattering, exploding outwards into dust. The pieces crumpled into nothing, tiny shards dropping to the water below.
Ezra dropped his hand, panting.
That was more energy than he should have poured in. He could feel an ache in his body, a sliver of creeping exhaustion moving through his limbs.
He raised his saber again, taking up ready position.
Maul had backed up to the opposite end of his pillar.
He surged forward, the Force catching him as he pushed off, and Ezra backed away, leaning down, one hand passing over the ground, letting himself slide a bit down the slope of the shelf to avoid Maul's landing.
It was a harsh one, sounding across the chamber with a devastating BLAM!
Once again the rock crumpled under Maul's feet, but this time he, also, buckled, wobbling with a sudden spasm as his injured knee groaned.
Ezra hoped for a moment Maul would be unbalanced enough to fall backwards into the water, but no such luck; the Zabrak straightened stiffly and was on him again, pushing hard attacks at his defense, driving him backwards.
The boy's feet slipped on the slick ice, but he managed to stay upright and planted, blocking the blows with wearied determination.
Break off, he told himself. You have to recover.
He looked for an opening to move but Maul gave him none, pressing his advantage, positioning Ezra close to a gap in the shelf.
Ezra thrust at Maul's stomach, finally forcing his opponent to back off, and used the opening to hop over the gap to the next portion of broken shelf.
Slowly, the two combatants descended the remnants of the ancient pathway, red and green sabers popping and crashing and sparks flying off the ignited blades.
They were almost to the shoreline now. Ezra ducked around behind a huge dangling icicle, leaving Maul to cleave it two to continue pursuing him.
Ezra reached the open space first, running towards the middle and then whipping around to catch Maul's renewed attack.
A heavy set of blows rattled through his joints, Maul's viciousness coming through and vibrating in Ezra's arms.
He tightened nervously, pushing Maul off, shoving.
Ezra could sense Maul's fury just underneath the man's outwardly only irritated-looking expression, hot and frothing, feel that same anger in every savage blow of the double-bladed lightsaber. Ezra kept stepping back and back, trying to make as many of Maul's strikes a waste of energy as he could. The strength of Maul's barrage had not seemed to diminish and that worried him a little. Was his strategy going to work?
Ezra danced back and blocked high as Maul struck high—once, twice, three times and then a low follow-up with the second blade. Ezra adjusted position to deflect.
In the gap between when Maul would normally spin his saber away to recover, Ezra abruptly reached in, grabbing the middle of the hilt and shoving it up to crack against Maul's nose.
The ex-Sith muffled a curse, stumbling back in surprise. He had an eerie gleam of pride on his face when he finally looked back at Ezra, and Ezra grew uncomfortably aware of who exactly he'd borrowed that trick from.
His instinct reaction was to make a quip—some dumb comment recalling "I steal from the best."—but no, this wasn't the time or place, Maul didn't deserve that, he wasn't Ezra's teacher and he never would be. So Ezra smothered down the words and merely gripped his saber tighter.
Maul came at him again; Ezra ducked a forceful swing from one blade, came up and blocked the second as it spun towards him.
Disengage, gain distance. Check with his Force senses behind him to make sure he wasn't going to run into anything. Wait for the next attack.
It thundered at him like a crackling storm, red blades skidding and sliding along his own. Parry, feint, twist away, turn back to face him.
A familiar ache was starting to pang through his arms. Ezra leaned further into the Force, willing it to guide him, and take away his fear, his weariness, his doubts.
He clashed with Maul again, the slashing red blades skimming closer than he liked. Ezra jabbed a thrust to force him back, one hand leaving his saber hilt as he crouched low, grabbed up a handful of pebbles from the floor, and flung them into Maul's face.
An angry screech and a swell of Dark Side cold hit his ears and senses. Maul flailed blindly with his lightsaber, forcing Ezra to quickly back away to avoid the lancing heat.
When Maul had recovered, he fixed wide, rabid eyes on Ezra and then lunged with a ferocious growl.
Ezra locked his arms stiffly in order to block and keep the weight of the blows from crushing him. He felt his wrist give an uncomfortable pang from the pressure.
Let it go. Let the pain flow into the Force, he told himself, Kanan's voice echoing in his head. Concentrate. Find your center.
It was getting harder now. The Dark Side curled and coiled around Maul, imbuing him, shoving through him, through his burning saber blows. Ezra paid a darting, rueful look back at the pillars.
Maybe he should have tried to stay up there...
A hard kick slammed into Ezra's right knee.
The sharp pain broke Ezra's focus. He gasped, crumpling, staggering back but managing not to collapse. His face pinched tight with the reverberating pain, one hand pressing on his thigh.
Vindictive, Maul pressed his attack. Ezra clumsily blocked a saber strike only to get the length of Maul's forearm slamming into his gut.
He went down, skidding across the icy floor. Ezra sucked in a breath, quickly fumbling to his feet to meet the next barrage.
Maul had a mean, smirking grin, his yellow eyes alight and feverish.
"No bravado, apprentice?" he taunted as he brought his attack against Ezra's defense. "No pithy words about how you're going to beat me this time?"
Ezra's jaw pinched, his teeth gripping inside his head. Don't listen to him, he told himself. He's just trying to unbalance you. Stay focused.
He had to win this. He didn't know what he was going to do if he couldn't.
Ezra backed off, renewing his strategy of waiting for Maul to strike and then evading. Maul made it difficult for him to get space in-between flurries, lunging in swiftly, giving him no time to think, no time to maneuver, only enough time to react.
Anxious tingles started to prick up his arms and spine. He blocked with more and more exhaustion, trying feverishly to regulate his breaths.
Maul hurled a wide, double-pronged sweep at him, both red blades swooping up and crashing against his, knocking the green saber askance.
Before Ezra could recover and put his guard back up, Maul reached in with one hand, fingers closing tight around his throat.
Ezra strained, choking a bit as Maul lifted him with an angry heft, slammed him back, into a large dangling icicle, pinning him there as he struggled to breathe.
Maul had fixed him with an even glare. "This little... insurrection of yours ends now, Ezra," he growled. "If you give me your saber now I won't have to—"
He was interrupted by Ezra spitting in his face.
Howling, Maul's eyes flashed hot furiously as he pulled Ezra away from the icicle, turning and hurling him off in another direction.
Ezra felt his left side bashing sharply against the edges of the rock, as the Force-enhanced throw tossed him through a side opening into another chamber. His teeth bit into his lip, muffling a cry.
As soon as he felt solid ground under his back he rolled over, trying to rise to his feet.
His side gave a painful split, collapsing him to his knees again. Ezra fumbled, hands and arms trembling as he forced himself up, running deeper into the new chamber.
Icy water bubbled in a wide pond to his right, and icicles intermingled with large clusters of crystal along the walls, humming softly with the song of kyber.
Ezra stumbled behind a pillar, sinking down with his back pressed to it, breathing hard. The hand he'd clutched to his side drew away, and Ezra hissed through his teeth, flinching.
The skid against the wall had ripped away the bandages and bacta patches and reopened the wound, which was now lightly bleeding, had stained his fingertips red.
Ezra stared down at his hand with rising fear choking his throat. Panicky alarms prickled at the back of his skull.
"You infuriating little—!" Maul stormed from the other chamber, and Ezra cringed into himself, curling up, muffling down a whimper.
Maul's footsteps echoed from the other room.
Doubt and despair were beginning to tighten Ezra's chest. His thoughts were starting to dissolve.
I can't, I can't, he's too strong, I can't even delay him long enough for the others to find me, he's going to take me away again, I can't—
Breathing frantically, Ezra cast his eyes about. They fixated on a large cluster of crystals on the wall, and for some reason, that seemed to tug his thoughts away from the hopeless repetition inside his head. The cluster recalled something from his memory, a vision of a Jedi Master with calm, soothing words and gentle hands passing along the facets of a similar cluster.
Break the problem down.
The words tingled inside his head, replacing the alarms. Ezra struggled for a moment, trying to decide what the first action was.
Slowly, he took a deep breath.
The tightness around his lungs faded. His head cleared some. The immediate panic was broken.
He held the breath for another split second, and then he exhaled.
And opened himself wide to the Force.
Everything came into sharper focus, the kyber hum resonating within him.
It was like an open beacon calling Maul to him; Ezra immediately sensed a stir of Dark Side energy behind him and a staticky warning in his head.
He hunched, curling up to his feet and clearing the pillar right before Maul thundered through the room and stabbed his saber through the rock.
Ezra ran to the other side of the cave, turning around and facing him. He breathed in again carefully, shedding the negative thoughts into the ether.
Break the problem down.
Maul ripped his saber from the pillar and began to advance.
Ezra angled right and slashed his blade through the nearest crystal cluster, breaking off a dozen or so large pieces, the first of which he reached down for and hurled towards Maul.
Taken aback, the chunk beaned him in the face, making him reel. He gave an angry yell.
Ezra had already lifted another piece with the Force and held it waiting. He didn't give Maul a chance to recover, shooting it off towards him. He knew it wouldn't stop him, wouldn't even hurt him, but it would hopefully buy Ezra just enough time.
Maul whipped up his saber, slashing the chunk to pieces in a single stroke.
Ezra sent another chunk sailing towards him.
Break the problem down.
One quick cut of red blades and his projectile vanished.
His eyes scanned down his opponent. C'mon Ez, think! he told himself. What's the easiest way you can incapacitate him?
Two more large crystal chunks hurled in rapid succession, red blades striking violently through them as Maul gained another step.
Ezra backed up slightly, raising his next volley.
Diaphragm? No, it was probably metal. Smaller.
Sparks and splinters flew as Maul tore apart the next crystal shards.
Ezra's eyes trailed down, drawing towards the metal limbs.
Smaller.
He flinched slightly as the deadly flourish of Maul's saber slashed apart his next barrage. Something about his advance caught Ezra's attention and his gaze drifted towards Maul's right knee.
Even smaller.
Another piece hurled with more force this time, deflected with a quick, angry sweep.
Ezra considered the carbon score marks on the metal plates, his eyes squinting. There was something...
Another piece. Another deflection.
And then he saw it.
The shatterpoint.
A screw on the side of the joint had been damaged by blasterfire; some of the greeves were missing and it was loose in its socket.
Ezra felt a quick shot of relief tingle inside his head. He didn't need to shatter the screw, didn't even need to crush or break anything with the Force. All he had to do was pull.
Anyone could pull.
He ran out of projectiles just as Maul closed in and brought up his saber, meeting the savage clash with a calm defense. Calling upon one last surge of adrenaline he tightened his grip on the hilt and fought back.
The blows rattled through his shoulders, heavy, crushing. Maul was all serious, frown grim as he pressed his attack.
Their blades locked once, twice.
Ezra shoved away the weight, his lungs screaming in exhaustion. Maul just came at him again, relentless, driving. Ezra's head shrieked at him to make his move now.
He let go with his left hand, blocking high as Maul slashed at him, his fingers lightly curling.
He reached out to grip with the Force...
...And pulled.
The small piece of metal tore free from the joint, shooting across the room.
Maul's eyes widened as the leg suddenly failed him. His high overhead strike faltered as he took his next step, his shin wobbling out from underneath him, sending him backwards.
He spilled back onto the ground, so startled he dropped his saber.
With a quick dart in and a snatch Ezra grabbed it, and hurled it into the pond where it disappeared with a small plop!
Both hands gripped his lightsaber as the green blade leveled in front of Maul's face.
The ringing in Ezra's head stopped.
Ezra locked his joints, panting hard, his chest heaving. He gasped in and out in loud wheezes. Adrenaline still pounded through him, rushing through his veins in a heady tingle. His immersion in the Force slowly diminished.
He stood with planted feet, battered, bruised, bleeding and weary, but head thrilling with the spark of victory.
Maul lay half-prone gaping up at him. The man's emotions were a frozen concoction of shock, bewilderment, anger... and fear.
-SWR-
Maul couldn't move past the shock of how quickly things had turned around. His mouth hung apart incredulously, staring at Ezra.
Terrified, trembling Ezra, who held his life in his very hands now.
The apprentice had challenged the master and won.
He thought through a couple options for how to break their stalemate but realized quickly that, with Ezra tensed and hyper-focused on him like that, the boy would cleave pieces off of him if he so much as made a threatening move.
Maul smothered down the fear threatening to rise in him, shoving it down under festering anger and a calm sort of acceptance.
So. This was how it ended then. Ezra would kill him and return to his friends, go crying and sniveling back to the people that had failed to protect him. The thought made him sick.
His mouth closed into a sour scowl, brows twisting down furiously.
He waited, but the boy only stood there, hesitating to strike.
Maul suppressed a growl. Hadn't he learned this lesson?
"What are you waiting for?" he challenged. He jut his chin up in defiance. "Do it. Take your revenge," he snarled.
He sensed frustration flare up inside Ezra, and the boy's hands readjusted on his saber hilt, raising the blade a fraction higher, warning him off.
Maul leaned back, expression cooling, settling into quiet contempt. "Don't you want to kill me?" he asked quietly.
He could sense Ezra's quavering anger. Sense the dark thoughts pulling at him, whispering in his ears, urging him to do it. Ezra struggled against the temptation for a long moment.
His mouth peeled open slowly. "I don't—" he started to deny, and Maul almost leaped in with a biting snap about how they both knew that was a lie, but Ezra surprised him by finishing, "—want to have to." His head gave the barest of shakes. "I'm a Jedi, it's—it's not—not what we do." He looked oddly vulnerable as he stammered. "I—I just... wanted you to stop. Stop hurting me and let me go."
Flickers of fury ran through Maul's chest. "You would cling to your foolish morals and ideals, the weak, merciful ways of the Jedi," he spat, his words practically venomous, "even now?"
Ezra's expression flattened in determination.
"Yes," he said, tone firm. His posture was calm, his expression chilled, mouth set in a neutral line that just barely turned down at the corners. His eyes tightened narrower, into an even glare. "I'm not like you," he added.
Maul blinked, taken aback by Ezra's conviction. For a moment he saw the shadow of an older Jedi standing there, a man with infuriatingly kind eyes, battle-hardened and weary, who refused to give in to anger even as Maul struck down everything and everyone he'd ever loved. Kenobi's defiant spirit lived in Ezra, and his nobility and sense of honor, and even—Maul noted—the same disgusting traces of pity.
It was naive. It was sickening.
...And it was the only reason he was still alive.
Another half-second flash passed before his eyes. The last time he'd been on the ground, crawling prostrate, cowering under the threat of his master, begging for a mercy that would not be granted.
In his mind, their positions switched, but it was not his master he saw quivering on the floor, hand stretched out pleadingly, but Ezra, quailing—as he had once quailed—under the shadow of a man determined to hurt him.
An uncomfortable feeling passed up his back.
He looked up at Ezra, seeing the boy almost like he was aglow in the Force, staying his hand despite having his enemy unarmed and defenseless before him.
A sinking tugged down his insides.
He had become the monster he hated. And Ezra had not. Would not. Would never be what Maul wanted him to be. Would never prove him right.
Maul would never be able to control him.
The weight of the knowledge pressed heavily on him, settling into bone and metal. The sour, familiar taste of futility was in his mouth, and Maul accepted the reality now revealed to him.
Prying apart dry lips, Maul softly acknowledged, "No. No... you are not."
Ezra stayed tensed, a little apprehensive at Maul's sudden, somber turn. The ex-Sith's gaze was off somewhere far away for a long moment. His eyes returned to Ezra, a resignation and defeat inside their depths.
He looked at his would-be-apprentice and marveled softly.
You are indeed a Jedi.
The cave fell quiet a moment, heavy thickness in the air.
Maul lifted his head.
"Go."
Ezra startled softly. Maul felt a thin ray of hope breaking through him. "What?" the boy said, bewildered.
"You've earned your freedom," Maul continued softly. "I..." He ducked his eyes. "...will honor our original bargain." He lost himself in contemplation for a moment, and when Ezra hadn't moved, raised his gaze softly and repeated himself. "Go," he said quietly.
Hardly daring to breathe, nervous hope flickering through him, the boy began to edge around Maul, keeping the tip of his saber trained on him, as if fearful Maul would turn around and lunge at him, pluck the weapon from his hands.
He carefully stepped around and around until he was angled with his shoulder facing the cavern opening.
Then he lowered his lightsaber and ran out of the cave.
Maul sat up straighter, shaking his head wonderingly at the boy as he caught glimpses of him leaping from pillar to pillar out in the chamber beyond, making his way up towards the surface.
You are remarkable, Ezra Bridger, he thought with sad fondness as he watched the young Jedi disappear from sight.
(A/N)- How 'bout them chapter notes eh? Lol.
1. Action sequences continue to be an absolute pain kjhkjfss. And this one especially because I couldn't have it be a curbstomp like usual, but I also couldn't make it easy on Ezra, but I also wanted y'all to worry for a moment or two there, lol.
2. Shatterpoint technique: Unlocked! I'm so proud of you, Ezra.
3. Maul has a brief moment of Heel Realization in which he discovers he'... kind of a terrible person. So for once in his life he does something marginally decent and accepts that he can't—and shouldn't—try to control and possess Ezra anymore. He's still garbage though, don't have too much sympathy for him.
4. I do have a terrible AU alternate ending oneshot idea in which Ezra doesn't win that I might do for Whumptober this year. Because angst.
Ezra's free! I actually do not have the next chapter pre-written, lol, so I will endeavor to write feverishly next week in order to have the second part of the climax up for y'all on time. Thank you for sticking with me!