Author's Note: This story was inspired by Aaron J. Shaw's "Sith Tries to Turn You to the Dark Side" series on YouTube! I wondered what it would be like with characters that we already knew. As you'll see, I of course didn't simply copy his script, but instead, this story took on a life of its own.
It was fun reading the "Kanan" comics as research, to learn more about Billaba & Kanan as a Padawan. If you've read some of my other works, you'll see that this one is similar to "A Master and an Apprentice", except that this story emphasizes dialogue and the power of words over physical torture. I've always felt dialogue was one of my weak points, so this was an interesting challenge! Hope you guys like it!
Caleb Dume woke with a start.
Gasping for air from nightmares that were already fading, he sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
His mind felt like it was filled with fog, and he couldn't remember the events of the last day. Where am I? He wondered, as the sleep finally cleared from his eyes, revealing a room that he didn't recognize. It wasn't large, only three to four paces wide and six to seven deep. The ceiling was high, though, so high he would have to stand on the metal platform attached to the wall that apparently passed for a bed to see out of it. He didn't have to though, to recognize the cold light emanating from the window. He was on a ship in space.
With no obvious way to open the door.
He put one hand to his head as a headache blossomed behind his eyes. What on earth had happened? The last thing he remembered was…
Odd, clanking footsteps sounded from outside the door, and he whipped his head around, eyes locked on it like his life depended on it.
Because it very well might.
It whooshed open to reveal a humanoid like Caleb had never seen before. Horns grew out of the top of his head, and his body was covered in twisting, spiralling red and black markings. Or the half, anyway. He suddenly realized the whole bottom half of the man was… mechanical.
A similar humanoid was right behind the first, but he was a lot bigger, and his markings were yellow. He also appeared to be fully organic.
They both descended the two steps that led into the room, and Caleb took the opportunity to examine their faces. Were these people friend or foe?
The red one had a… calculating look, but Caleb could sense the fiery pleasure hiding underneath. The yellow one behind him wasn't hiding anything. His emotions were right on the surface. A cruel smile split his face as he looked at Caleb. But they both had the same look in their eyes: like he was an opportunity.
He shivered.
"Are you cold, child? How thoughtless of me. I should've left you a blanket. I do apologize," the red man said.
It took him a moment to work up the courage to speak. "Where am I?"
"Why, you are on my ship!"
He waited for him to continue, but the man just stared at him. Caleb decided he needed another prompt. "Why am I here? What happened?"
"We were hoping you could tell us. So strange to find a Jedi Padawan with no Master. And floating unconscious in an escape pod, no less!"
He inhaled sharply, memory coming back to him in a flash. "The pod! Gasket, is he - "
"The clone that was with you?" The red man interrupted. "Dead, I'm afraid."
"Oh." Caleb's voice sounded small even to himself. He buried his face in his hands, as much to hide his emotions from these strangers as to rest his head somewhere. He felt so tired.
"Master Billaba," he whispered to himself, needing to get the memories out of his head and into the open… even if it was to strangers. They couldn't be that bad. They'd rescued him, hadn't they? "We were separated in the escape from…" His hands clenched into fists in front of him. "I can't remember the planet. There were too many droids, we had to retreat. We ended up on different ships. The droids followed us though, and our reactor was hit. Gasket managed to get me to the escape pods just before they blew it up." His eyes turned to the window he couldn't see out of, towards the dark reaches of space. "Our pod collided with some debris though as we tried to get away. It must've knocked me unconscious." He turned back to the two men. "Was that what killed Gasket? Did he hit his head?"
The man paused before answering, his expression carefully neutral. "Yes."
Caleb frowned. He knew he wasn't very advanced in using the Force to sense others' intentions or if they were lying. And yet… something about the man's answer rubbed him the wrong way. It didn't help that the yellow man behind him was very poorly concealing a smirk.
He put it to the back of his mind for a later date. He had other things to worry about. "How did I get here?"
"Oh, that? My brother and I," the first man gestured to the second. "Were making a course calculation nearby, when our scanners picked up your life signs. We decided to investigate and found you and the clone simply floating unconscious, your pod apparently drifting through space. We collected you - the clone was a lost cause - and brought you to my ship."
Caleb noted the distinct use of "my ship". Not "our ship". Mine. There seemed to be an unusual aspect to these two brothers. So far the bigger one hadn't said a word, seeming to defer to the red one. And the use of "my" instead of "our". The guy seemed rather possessive.
"Well, thank you, whoever you are. You saved my life. Would you possibly be flying near Corsucant? Or could you wait here for a few days, I'm sure my Master will find me soon. I don't have anything I can repay you with, but as soon as my Master comes - "
"Maul," the first man interrupted softly.
He froze, half-forgotten memories suddenly swirling to the surface. "What?"
"You said 'whoever you are'. I am Maul." He gave a smile that reminded Caleb of the videos of various world's predators he'd had to watch as a youngling.
But Caleb wasn't smiling. He remembered the lessons from Master Kenobi. "You're - you're Darth Maul."
The man - Maul - gave him a wide grin. "So you have heard of me!"
Caleb shot to his feet at the admission, his hand flying to his belt. He looked down in panic. Where was it?
Maul cleared his throat. "Looking for something?"
His eyes flew up to meet Maul's and his heart sank as he saw his lightsaber dangling from the Sith's fingers. Thinking quickly, he thrust out his hand to call it back out of his grip. But the yellow man was quicker.
His hand flew up the same time, reaching over Mail's shoulder, and just as Caleb's fingers spread out to their apex, he felt his whole body freeze up.
He tried to curl his fingers, shift his stance, but it was no use. He was held fast.
"Thank you, Savage," Maul said with an air of indifference, still idly twirling Caleb's lightsaber in his hand. "You know," he said, casually clipping the lightsaber to his belt. "You really have nothing to fear from me. I haven't been Darth Maul in quite some time."
"What?" Caleb spoke through gritted teeth as his muscles strained against the compression. "You just work for yourself now, or something?"
"Yes, actually!" His eyes flicked over Caleb's straining form, and he held up a finger to Savage.
Caleb dropped to the floor, gulping in air, his limbs barely holding him up as he attempted not to completely fall apart in front of a Sith Lord.
"Not Darth?" He gasped out. "Then what do you want with me?"
"To show you the truth!" Maul spat out, anger fierce in his eyes. "To show you the truth of your precious Jedi. To see… if you can be saved."
He pushed himself to his feet, squaring his shoulders. "I only need saving from you."
He thrust out his hands again, fully intending to knock them both off their feet. But Maul flicked his fingers and Caleb was flung sideways into the wall, crumpling onto the bed beneath him.
Force, is that what it felt like to be Force-pushed? He tried to lift his head, but the world was already darkening around him. His lack of food and actual sleep were finally catching up to him, compounding on his knocked-up head. His head dropped back onto the bed. He struggled to keep his eyes open as he heard the clunk, clunk of Maul's mechanical footsteps. The last thing he saw was a blurry image of red and black, and he heard Maul's voice saying, "I will make you see. Never fear, little Padawan."
But Caleb was very afraid. Darkness took him.
Author's Note: An intriguing start, isn't it? ;-)
Never fear that this is a WIP! The entire story is already written, I just need time to type it up and beta it. I'm in school full-time and work full-time so I'm going to be doing the same posting schedule as my other WIP, 1-2 chapters a week. I'm not sure yet if I should post "More Ways Than One" chapters on the same day as "Master and an Apprentice" though (the weekend) or in the middle of the week (Wednesday). What do you think? Same day, or different days? Let me know your thoughts! Thanks for reading!