The elevator chimes pleasantly before the doors slide open, unveiling the familiar steel and metal security fortress.

"Is that them?" Jacen immediately asks, getting Mira to turn in my arms and look out.

"Yup." I smile as Palpatine's emissaries continue talking to Cayle beyond the security checkpoint.

"And you guys are working together to catch a bad guy?"

The nearest Temple Guard chuckles, which causes me to freeze. "Yeah. We're trying to catch a bad guy. Now hang on, we have to walk thru all this."

Mira enunciates something, then points out towards Cayle and Palpatine's people. The new voice gets everyone to turn before the Force surges with positive emotions.

Yeah. She's a baby. Not even anymore I guess. A toddler.

"You're all set. You can move along." Another Guard says to me as I dip my shoulder to start unloading Mira's diaper bag.

Oh?

"Really?" I blurt out in shock.

"You always have the same things in your pockets. Unless you have anything new to declare, you're all set." The Guard nearest the metal detector tells me.

"No, nothing new to declare." I reply.

Wallet, beskar, keys, phone.

The guard steps aside and motions for Jacen to lead the way. Fearlessly, he does just that before craning his head to look up at the Guards. "Thank you!"

"You're welcome. May the Force be with you."

Jacen's expression becomes giddy. "May the Force be with you, Master."

Mira, meanwhile, takes one look at the Guards and ducks her head, just before I feel Cayle reach out and warn me thru the Force.

Here they come.

"Thank you. May the Force be with you." I say after passing by the barricades.

The Temple Guards all bow in unison. "May the Force be with you, young Bridger."

Bridger.

"Can you say thank you?" I avert my eyes down to Mira. Mira casts a look up at me, then peers over my shoulder and vocalizes something before hiding again.

Mira…

"You are never shy. The times you become shy are so weird." I peer down at her.

You love the grocery store. You run around the Temple, run around the house. You even ran into the garage and your Mom's SUV thinking we were going somewhere.

Cayle's contingent reaches us, causing Jacen to take a half step closer to me before I give Palpatine's people a smile. "Morning."

"Good morning…isn't this a pleasant surprise." Jon, the nice speechwriter that guided me thru the White House smiles before extending his hand to me.

"Such a surprise…hi!" Alyssa has eyes only for Mira, who is too busy sizing up her coworkers to notice.

Cayle wordlessly takes the diaper bag. "I was just telling them how the picture is a little clearer now."

"I mean, we saw them on social." Tommy adds. "But…yeah. Good to see you, man."

"Nice to see you guys too. Thank you for making the trip out here." I give in to the fiction.

Pressure on Palpatine continues to mount behind the scenes. Publicly, he won his Supreme Court battle and is said to be narrowing down candidates for the vacant seat.

"You guys are here to help catch a bad guy?" Jacen asks harmlessly, getting all three of Palpatine's people's attention.

"We are!" Tommy crouches down and gives Jacen a toothy grin. "What's your name dude?"

"My name's Jacen. Are you chasing after that scary guy on the news?"

—

"No, we're going after somebody else." Cayle covers for me. "How do you know what's on the news?"

"Kai and Conor and Jaiden were talking about it while we were riding bikes. And it was on the TV when Conor's mom brought us in for snacks."

"Don't worry about any of that bud," I tell him quietly before everyone's eyes dart to me. "The TV doesn't always tell the truth."

"That's what Mommy said."

Cayle soothingly intercedes. "Your Mom's right. Now c'mon. Let's get you changed and Mira to her daycare. Let's let Ezra work."

"I wanna help!" Jacen's voice pitches into a whine. "Can I help?"

"No." Cayle shakes his head.

"Pleeeeeaaaseeeee?" Jacen begins begging.

No.

"Maybe when you're older." I reason with him before crouching down. "You've got an important job right now though."

"I do?"

Without another word, I pass Mira over to Jacen. Mira happily accepts the change, latching right onto her brother before Jacen makes a face. "Mira's not that important…"

Palpatine's people all chuckle before Jacen makes a face in their direction. Cayle smoothly slides over. "You're both more important than you'll ever know. Now c'mon…"

This time Jacen begins following Cayle's request. "Mira's just my sister. She can't poop on her own, how's she special?"

Don't laugh.

I manage to stifle a laugh, unlike Palpatine's people as Cayle leads them down the long corridor.

I'll take a shortcut to the strategic planning rooms thru a hallway down here.

After maybe a minute of silence, Jon dares to break it. "Imagine if the world heard that Lord Vader was two kids' favorite babysitter."

"I'm not their babysitter." I turn slightly. "I'm…an honorary uncle."

I don't know what we'll do when they get older. Right now they've never questioned it.

"They love you." Alyssa checks me. "And I can see why, you look like the fun uncle."

Tommy chimes in "Yeah, I like the attire man."

Feeling self-conscious, I glance down at the white shirt with horizontal black stripes every inch or two. "Thanks, a friend bullied me into buying this. It's grown on me."

Not too crowded or congested. I like this shirt.

"Your girlfriend bought that for you, didn't she!" Alyssa gasps before smiling from ear to ear.

"She's not my girlfriend, but yeah she picked out the shirt."

I think Mira tagged along with us on that trip to Target.

"We're still playing this game?" Jon eyes me.

"I don't play games. I…I'll get there if I get there." I run my hand thru my hair before gesturing towards an empty corridor. "We're taking a shortcut, turn here."

All three of them follow my lead before I probe out.

Now seems like a good time.

"I'm, uhm…I'm sorry you guys are taking all this heat for me." I turn and apologize. "I'm not worth all this."

I literally flipped the race. New polls have the race as a dead heat, with a large swath of voters citing me as the reason for changing their minds.

"Yeah, you are. You can do things nobody else can, from everything we've heard man." Tommy interjects. "All those things you did years ago? They're gone, done. Nothing we can do about them now."

"And you were a minor. God, you turned when you were twelve!" Alyssa cries out. "You didn't know what you were doing."

Yeah I did.

I knew exactly what I was doing.

"You shouldn't be held responsible for the horrible things your Dad made you do." Alyssa sticks up for me as we continue down this corrido—

—

I come up a half step short and stick my arm out and bodily stop both Jon and Alyssa.

That probe didn't come back—

"What?" Tommy asks before I probe again just in time to turn and spot multiple shadowy figures rushing around.

Problem.

"Twos." I snap off while pulling my glasses off my collar and onto my face using the Force. "Sound the alarm. We have intruders."

"Always so quick to the glasses…" A drawl coldly reaches my ears before a new figure—

Alyssa screams as I take a half step back and bodily push Palpatine's people back.

You.

"You're not nearly as tall as I remember." I taunt the red-skinned, horned Zabrak with tattoos all over his body.

"And the Jedi have watered you enough to rise to your full height. Do you want congratulations?" Maul sends my taunt back at me.

"Tell them yourself." I smirk before lowering my eye level to focus on Maul.

Focus.

"I would have, if your security system wasn't so poor." Maul turns his head before displaying—

My old lightsaber.

They broke into the vaults downstairs.

How in the hell—

"The years may have changed but you haven't…sad. So sad." Maul continues to mock me as I quickly scan his person for more plundered treasures.

I think that's it.

"You'd be surprised." I counter, then pull my lightsaber not my hand and hold it in the textbook Makashi ready position, but don't salute Maul.

I'll salute him in a cell.

"Oh, this should be interesting." Maul goads me, then snaps his wrists and releases a Force Push my way.

Alyssa and Jon both scream as all three begin running for their lives before I snap neutralize the Push with one of my own.

Nah.

"Turn around, as fast as you can." I order Palpatine's people. "When you find somebody, tell them I'm in pursuit."

The threat is armed and dangerous.

"He's getting away!" Jon tells me just before Maul's shoulder vanishes into a new hallway.

OH NO HE'S NOT!

(An unidentified length of time later)

Sparks fly on all sides as I push Maul back into a fresh hallway. He takes the opportunity to gain space, allowing me to pivot and locate two more of his friends.

No, you're mine. Table.

Switching hands with my lightsaber from right to left, I snap my right hand and catch Maul's associates blind, sending them right to the floor. Maul responds with a roar of frustration before activating his lightsaber and heavily chopping down at me.

Deflecting most of the energy, I stand my ground before he breaks off the saber lock. "Your first mistake was showing your face to me."

"Your face is hidden behind that mask! You fear it coming off!" Maul snaps back at me before kicking out at me.

Ducking underneath the blow, I shove him away as a new soldier—

All he can do is make a strangled cry as I catch him with my forearm and knock him straight to the ground, unconscious.

Bitch.

You tried.

Maul eyes his latest fallen associate as my mask releases a new dosage of pure oxygen for me. "You've got nowhere to go. This whole Temple's on point looking for you. Give it up."

You don't even know that I've pushed you past the tunnels to LA's Underground. All there is now are old, neglected sewers that were shut off years ago.

A primal yell is sent my direction, followed by a two-piece chop/punch combo. Blocking the chop, I turn the kinetic energy into a knee right into Maul's kidneys that forces even him to wince before falling back.

"Dad said you had grown resistant to most pain." I goad him as Maul glances around.

Nowhere to go. You can take that last flight of stairs. The door on the left is a closet. The right goes nowhere. Straight ahead are some access pipes that are welded shut.

Maul's so desperate to steal that he didn't have an escape plan.

Idiot.

Maul releases a snort like a bull before taking a wild swing at my head that I duck under. His momentum begins taking him past me—

NOPE!

Grabbing him, I toss him dead ahead into the access room, effectively trapping him.

"Twos, I—"

Maul makes a sudden, desperate snatch at my left ankle, which I block with my right hand before raising—

"Nop—"

Maul's hilt violently collides with my face, sending me stumbling bac—

In a red and black blur, Maul encircles me before my right ankle near the calf erupts in pain and agony.

"AHH—h—"

—

His cane is a double-bladed lightsaber.

…

Maul's face shines crimson as he peels his lips back, revealing his disgusting, blackened teeth before I make a move to fight bac—

The dagger cuts right thru me like cake before all the strength evaporates from my body. I try to catch myself on one of the assortment of pipes, only for my arms to become noodles and offer me no help, leaving me to collide heavily and slide down the wall like a slug.

Breathe Ezra. BREATHE!

My attempt for air comes out as a pitiful gasp that gets Maul's eyes to gleam, victorious. Before he can say anything, however, one of his troops comes rushing in.

"Lord Maul, the remainder of the Temple's defenses are in shambles. They've lost us." He states before turning to me. "Wait is that—"

Maul pulls my glasses off my face before I can move to stop him. When I do, my arm barely raises halfway before slumping.

I'm…I'm…

My next attempt to breathe forces me to cough before copper hits my tongue.

I…

"Escape thru the tunnels. Their pursuit will lose us there. And they'll be too concerned with this one to give an honest effort in pursuit."

"Why not kill him then?" Maul's soldier asks before raising a blaster.

Maul coldly knocks it away. "Because there are many worse things than death. Such as failure…or treachery."

…

"Thru the tunnel. I'll be right behind you." Maul orders his man, who clambers past Maul and into the man-sized pipe.

"Look what has become of you…a meek, docile Jedi. I believe they've even house trained you."

YOU—

My retort comes out as a copper cough before Maul crouches down and grabs me by my hair. "Oh, I don't think we should have more of that…exertion is very bad for you right now."

…

My head swims and the world rotates before I gasp for my next breath.

—

"Your father will be quite pleased when he hears of my success. Not that I'm working for him, but that for all the Jedi's efforts…you are still weak. You always were, and always will be. Your ability for compassion is a weakness, one we will use until you are dead…Lord Bridger."

"Soon…your Jedi. And your precious Republic will both fall."

"Republic?"

Maul whirls away from me and begins to pace. "The Jedi have stashed you in their midst…but they don't educate you. This country and the most powerful nations in the world are not democracies… You fight for a Republic!"

"You think you've changed, but all you've done is reduce yourself to a shadow, a whisper. The name Vader…means nothing."

Lies—

"TRUTH!" Maul roars at me. "You hear it upon your own ears yet find a way to ignore it. You are distracted! Undisciplined! You think yourself as controlling the game your father lorded over. No…no…"

Maul takes a moment to laugh at me before turning his back to me. "You were never even a player."

—

"Don't worry…you won't die today young Bridger. The dagger in your ribs has not penetrated any arteries or nicked your heart. Only incapacitated you for long enough to allow me to slip away. Your death will come…soon enough."

He's not making the calls.

Maul chuckles at my thought. "I make the calls in my own orbit. One with significantly more gravity than yours. Your orbit—" Maul stops before bending down—

No—

My mental attempt to thwart Maul elicits no movement from my body as Maul frisks both of my pockets, pulling out the full contents before displaying them before my eyes.

NO

"Unmarked key chain…car key…living quarters or a safe haven perhaps…mail key, lock key…" Maul flips thru my keys. "Key FOB, another key to what looks like a home…"

Maul rises while opening one of the oozing pipes before flinging my keys into the darkness. "Wallet…don't need that—anymore…" Maul comments before opening another pipe and discarding my wallet into its depths.

"Now what's this…?" Maul muses before his eyes light up in triumph.

NO—

"Rings indicate an old mine…likely forged decades ago…" He says almost to himself. "Whoever gifted you this is Mandalorian…and a fool. Their trust in you is misplaced and you are undeserving of it."

…

…

All I can muster is the bare minimum gasp for air I need to survive as Maul pockets the beskar. "Now let's see…ahh." He taps on my phone screen before flipping it back to me.

He unlocked it.

Maul flips my phone back to him and stares at the screen for a moment. "Hmm. The girl is different." He observes before tapping on the lock button and flipping the phone screen back to me. "I believe that is the young one you were holding when I met you again…" Maul muses while tapping in my passcode again.

…

"She doesn't appear to be the type that, shall I say…goes for men."

"You—"

"SILENCE!" Maul roars, leaving me trembling at his feet. "Cell phones are expensive, so I won't destroy it. I'll just leave it right…"

Maul grabs my right arm and extends it far enough that the phone would within my grasp, then drops my arm away uselessly before setting my phone with the screen face down out of my reach.

"Your inability to accept the past. Yet another weakness your father foretold for you. True strength lies not in the muscles—" Maul kicks my right bicep, causing the whole right side of my body to throb. "—or the mind, but the will. And yet you opt for vanity and your muscles and your mind…when the answer has been in front of you all along."

Breathe.

"You'll breathe. You'll breathe until one of your pathetic comrades finds you. But by then I'll be long gone, and you'll be unable to catch me. You are right on one count…I'm not calling the shots when it comes to you, Lord Vader…you know why?"

Why?

"Because Elias says hello."

(Kanan Jarrus POV)

Cayle's dogged pursuit leads us deeper into the drainage system. "Makes sense he'd come down here…"

"But there's no escape." Rex reminds me. "There was nowhere for him to go."

The Temple's secured. Due in most part to Ezra driving back Maul's forces.

"How'd they get in? They grabbed that Holocron and then just appeared." Ahsoka says thru the comms.

Like that was the plan all along.

Before anybody else can respond, Skywalker's voice cuts thru the comms. "Yeah…alarms have been completely neutralized. Motion triggers, cameras, all of it."

"Across the entire Temple?" Ahsoka asks.

"I think we have to assume yes."

"Ponds, maintain that defensive lockdown. Is the detention level secure?" Rex hits his comm as we dive deeper into this dark, dank mess.

Where are you, Ezra…

Footsteps echo all around us before I reach out into the Force and…

I don't like that I can't feel—

"—I NEED A MEDIC!" Cayle screams—

No.

The panic in Cayle's voice sends everyone into a desperate sprint straight ahead to an open room with multiple open pipes and—

Ezra's foot and phone are barely visible in the doorway as Cayle's bent over him, checking him—

"Oh god, oh god—." Cayle gasps before I reach Ezra—

Ezra.

"We need a full extraction team and a medical team on standby. Padawan Bridger is down." Rex reports as I quickly examine the scene. "Repeat, Bridger is DOWN!"

Cayle's breathing is ragged and frayed as his fingers are on Ezra's neck— "I got a pulse. It's weak but…"

"Ezra. Look at me. Look at me, soldier." Rex crouches down to Ezra's right. "Eyes on me."

Ezra's lightsaber lies off to the side, forgotten before I see a cut thru his jeans to his calf—

That wouldn't…

"Kanan." Rex brings my attention up to—

The air vanishes from my lungs as on Ezra's left side, just below his armpit Ezra's old Sith dagger is wedged into his ribs, with blood oozing out and down his side.

"Subterranean sewer access, eastern side. Double time! He's lost a lot of blood here!" Rex dictates as I crouch down and grab Ezra's shoulder.

He's gonna…

"You're gonna be okay. You hear me? Nod if you hear me." I instruct him.

Simple. He's hurt.

"Easy Kanan, we don't know how deep Maul stuck that dagger in him." Rex gently chastises me before my eyes drop down to the dagger.

All the way to the hilt.

Ezra lets out a faint breath, but it's so weak my heart starts pounding desperately against my chest.

He's as pale as bleached bone. Completely collapsed against the wall.

"Ezra. Listen to me. Can you hear me? I need to know if you can hear me, son." Rex commands Ezra.

Ezra does just that, but in the exact opposite way, with his eyes averting from all of us.

He failed. He knows it too. He doesn't want any of us to look him in the eye.

Heavily, his head turns to the left and away from everyone before Cayle's panicked breathing sends him to Ezra's left side.

"No no no. You're gonna be okay buddy, I promise. Just hang on, stay with me." Cayle pleads with Ezra before grabbing his hand. "C'mon." Footsteps finally begin thundering towards us. "Help's coming."

Hurry. Hurry hurry hurry.

"Ezr—" Hera rushes into the room before spotting him and making an inhumane, horrifying scream of a noise and collapsing against the nearest wall.

Hera!

I leap towards my wife, catching her before she fully hits the wall. "Tell me he's not—"

Fully armed and equipped medical troopers rush in, prompting Cayle to hustle out of their way only for Hera to desperately latch onto him.

"I was about to turn towards the newer portion of the system when I could have sworn I heard a clanging sound…" Cayle says quietly as Ezra's now completely surrounded by medical personnel, many of which are barking out orders.

"—no, don't let him lean on that side—!"

"Single stab wound to the left side, significant blood loss—"

"Prep him for a Laparotomy."

"Falling into hypervolemic shock—"

"No, he's not." Somebody barks out. "That's not allowed to happen, you understand me!"

"His blood type's O." I say blankly.

Universal donor. The Kaminoans said that his father insisted on that.

"You hear that? Need at least 250 CCs of Type O blood up in the infirmary STAT! Prep for immediate emergency surgery!"