Here's hoping this one gets a bit more of a response from the readers. I think the last chapter only got one review, which to be honest, was a little disheartening.

Chapter 20: Sound the Alarm

The trip back from Dathomir was full of awkward silence. Kanan normally wasn't one to talk much unless a conversation was initiated for him. Ezra had just dealt with Maul yet again. But Sabine was being quieter than usual as she piloted the Phantom II back to Atollon. There was a strange tension in the ship everyone could feel, but no one seemed to know what to say that would begin alleviating the issue.

Ezra was internally rehashing what he'd seen under the influence of the Nightsister's magic. If Obi-wan was truly still alive, Ezra was certain the great Jedi master could help them destroy the Sith, which would also potentially help turn the tide of the Rebellion. But that would only be if they could find the great Jedi master before Maul did. Maul seemed to be after the same thing, but for entirely different reasons. He also had a leg up on them, as he seemed to know of Obi-wan's current location. Then there was the fact that Maul also wanted Ezra to go with him to help defeat his enemy, but that would've meant helping the Zabrak take down a great Jedi, as well as leaving Ezra's master and girlfriend under the control of the Nightsisters. Neither of which did he have any desire to do.

In reality, the part about Obi-wan was a distant second with Ezra's priorities when Maul tried to convince him to leave Dathomir together. Saving Kanan and Sabine was the driving factor behind his refusal, disappointing Maul, but he didn't care about that. His relationship with Kanan was almost as strong as it'd been before Malachor, and there was no way he'd ever leave Sabine behind under any circumstances. Their relationship had never been stronger, and it was still growing every day. Wherever Sabine was, Ezra wanted to be there by her side.

Still, Maul's disappointment raised another concern. Ezra knew Maul wanted him to become his apprentice, and they had some things in common. Their drive to destroy the Sith was at the forefront, but now Ezra wondered if he would have to include Maul in such a scenario. Was he strong enough to defeat the Zabrak on his own? And if not, he at least needed to discover the means to sever the link between them created when they joined the Holocrons together. For if Maul found and somehow defeated Obi-wan Kenobi, who would his next target be? Kanan? The Rebellion?

Perhaps a second trip to speak with Bendu would be more helpful than just telling Ezra not to turn around. Force sensitive beings were definitely difficult to deal with when it came to answering questions. And Bendu surely was acting more like the fairy tale wish granters, with how they would bend the wish maker's words in a manner that would give anything but what was wished for. Even Yoda was far from the most straightforward being.

At the same time, Sabine was also internally dealing with some of her own issues. Normally, she would find a quiet place to paint away an ordeal, such as being possessed, but she couldn't get the solitude from within the Phantom II, leaving her with only her thoughts. The possession itself was bad enough, but what the Nightsister had in mind for rebuilding their clan was even more disturbing. Sabine had initially been troubled at being forced to watch while the Nightsister controlled her body, forcing her to attack Ezra. But when Ezra and Maul escaped to where the Nightsister could not follow, Sabine began to see the Nightsisters' intentions. They weren't concerned with Ezra or Maul escaping, because they already had a male and a female under their control. The other two beings were only perceived as potential threats, and with the threats removed, they could focus on rebuilding their clan. The mere mental image of them using Kanan and Sabine's bodies to do that was one Sabine did not want.

Kanan was the leader of their ragtag crew, and along the way, he'd become so much more to Sabine. He served as a surrogate father, which made such intentions by the Nightsister all the more revolting, but they didn't care about such things. Thank the Manda that Ezra came back and freed her before anything like that came to fruition.

But that wasn't the only thing going through her thoughts. While Kanan had announced he didn't want them going through with any of Maul's future plans, the fact remained that Ezra had always been too willing to do the opposite. Even if this time was for the best of reasons, Sabine felt there was an underlying concern. She would never admit it aloud, but there was something about Ezra's willingness to go along with Maul that scared her, and she didn't know what she could do about it.

Nearly three days later, Hera had returned from the reconnaissance mission to Lothal. She'd been back for nearly an hour when Sabine was standing just outside the entrance to the Ghost's cockpit. Her intention was to have another sit-down conversation with the ship's matriarch, but she never enjoyed those. And to make things worse, she thought she'd already had the only "therapy session" she'd need concerning the topic at hand, but here she was, standing there at the door, looking like an idiot. She really didn't want to resort to this again, but couldn't decide what to do on her own. So, like ripping off a bacta patch, she took a deep, cleansing and confidence building breath, and pressed on the entry panel, triggering the door to slide open.

As expected, Hera was sitting in her designated pilot's chair, finishing up her routine post-flight checklist in preparation for the next mission. "Hey," Sabine said, announcing herself to the ship's captain.

"Oh, hi Sabine," Hera replied, not looking up or pausing in what she was doing. "I saw that you submitted your mission report to command, but I haven't had a chance to look into it yet. Did everything go alright?"

"Yeah, but that's not why I'm here," Sabine answered, fidgeting with something inadvertently.

Hera could hear the troubled tone in Sabine's voice. She stopped what she was doing, and turned to face the female teenager. Hera had been with each member of her crew long enough to read them by their body language better than she could with their words, and she could clearly confirm that something was indeed troubling the Mandalorian warrior. And if she had to guess, Ezra was going to be at the root of it.

"Something going on with you and Ezra?" She asked.

"Why would you..." Sabine started to question, before stopping herself and recalling who she was talking to. "There's nothing wrong with him and I. I'm just concerned about him."

"Why is that?"

"Because it seems like he's stuck in a loop with the Darkside," Sabine responded.

"Okay Sabine, I'm going to need a little more to go on here if you want me to help."

Sabine huffed in frustration. She asked herself why she still struggled so much in simply getting out what she needed to say, but she already knew the answer. It was personally affecting her, and she didn't do personal. "It's Maul. Again," she eventually said. "It's like, every time we think Ezra has finally turned a corner, Maul comes in to bring him right back toward the Darkside."

"And you think this is happening again?" Hera asked and received a confirming nod.

"I mean, I hope it doesn't," Sabine explained. "Ezra seems fine this time compared to before, but I'm worried he might be doing a better job of hiding it. And I don't know what we can do about Maul. Plus, Kanan's already told me how easy it is to fall to the Darkside. And to make matters worse, Kanan could've stopped it, but he let Ezra go with Maul this time."

"Kanan told me." Hera added. "It was a risk, but he said Ezra didn't want to jeopardize the location of our base." That only caused Sabine to begin pacing back and forth.

"I don't think it was worth the risk, Hera," Sabine replied. "Just look at what Maul did with Ezra during the mission debriefing. And he wasn't even physically there! It's like he keeps clawing his way into Ezra's head, and I can't do anything to help him."

Hera's eyes flashed as things suddenly made a lot more sense. Sabine's concern was twofold. But she needed the peace of mind that Ezra wasn't slipping toward the Darkside again. "Sabine, I think you should know more about the conversation I had with Kanan. Kanan told me he isn't concerned about Ezra this time. He said that Maul's influence over Ezra isn't nearly as strong as the Sith Holocron was. Ezra didn't want to work with Maul this time like he did when they first met, and this time, Kanan can sense that Ezra didn't fall at all."

"But what about what Maul did to him at the briefing?" Sabine asked, not giving up her line of thinking. "What if he does that again? And what if it's when Ezra's in the thick of a battle, or worse? Maul's interference could cost Ezra his life."

"Kanan is aware of that too," Hera answered. "He told me he has a plan to help with that."

"You mean, like his plan to help Ezra before that got us possessed by some evil spirits on Dathomir?"

"Well," Hera said, before pausing briefly to decide how to best proceed with a touchy subject. "Not as extreme as that plan was. This one has more to do with his Jedi knowledge than allowing things to happen with someone like Maul."

The mention of Kanan having a plan wasn't helping alleviate Sabine's concerns. She'd already mentioned it to Kanan himself, after he convinced Hera to leave for the reconnaissance mission. Even though she was joking then more than being serious. But after what happened, Sabine was now thinking it wasn't something to joke about, and Hera could see she hadn't convinced Sabine.

"If you're still unsure, you could always join them and help keep an eye on him." Hera suggested. "I think you would be the first to notice if Ezra was slipping into any Darkside tendencies anyways. Besides, he trusts you more than anyone else. Maybe if you talk to him about it, he might be more willing to open up than you think."

"Maybe you're right," Sabine acquiesced before turning to leave. This meeting wasn't as helpful as she'd hoped, but at least with Hera's suggestion, there would be less issue with her tagging along for Jedi training. "I'll let you know if I see something off."

Not yet ready to adhere to Hera's words, Sabine instead went into her quarters with the intention of getting in some much-needed painting therapy before going after Ezra. She hoped it would help more than the conversation with Hera did. She needed a proper canvas before getting too carried away, and scoped out her walls for a blank piece of canvas. She figured some music would be enjoyable while she painted, and reached over to turn on the radio while also looking for an open spot on her wall until her hand bumped into something cylindrical.

Painting at all left her mind as she reacted quickly enough to catch the Darksaber, before it fell onto the floor. Sabine rolled it around between her hands, wondering again why she'd even brought the damn thing back from Dathomir. It wasn't like she could return it to her people. Not even just to hand over the Darksaber. She was Dar'manda in the eyes of all Mandalorian people, including her own family. So, she couldn't face them. Her biological family made their choice years ago, and left her with the only thing she could do. Which was how she found her new family.

She considered just getting rid of the thing. Maybe bury it somewhere off base to never be found again. She hid it well, and was the only person who knew what it was or that it was on Chopper Base. Plus, it had been gone from Mandalorian hands for nearly two decades now. And history had taught her that it was basically a symbol of pain for her people, but there was still a small inkling in her thoughts that wouldn't allow her to simply leave such a piece of history behind. She simply couldn't bring herself to get rid of it.

As Sabine continued to mentally debate keeping it or not, she casually inspected the handle for what seemed like the fiftieth time since she'd taken it from Dathomir. She knew she needed to do something with it, otherwise she'd never stop thinking about it. Just having the blade in her room was already distracting her now with how she decompressed, and that couldn't continue. One thing she was certain of was that things would only get worse if she didn't do something about it sooner rather than later.

However, any chance to determine what to do with the blade was paused by an unexpected knock on her door. Hastily, Sabine pulled open a drawer and hide the blade in storage, before heading over to unlock the door. It opened to reveal Ezra as the knocking culprit, waiting patiently for admittance, and she was happy for once to have him there presenting a distraction.

"Hey," he said. "Hera said you'd probably be here."

"Yeah," Sabine confirmed. "What's up?"

"Well, I was hoping I caught you before you started painting," Ezra answered as he looked over her shoulder for signs of new artwork before he continued. "I wanted to ask if you'd spar with me a little before Fenn's next training session tomorrow morning. I could use all the help I can get, but if you're about to get started, then I'm sorry for interrupting."

"No, that's alright," Sabine said, before quickly stepping out into the hallway, allowing the door to slide shut behind her. "I mean, I was thinking about painting, but nothing's come to mind yet. Maybe kicking your butt a few times will give me some inspiration."

Ezra could sense there was something more, but he didn't want to ruin his chance to train alongside Sabine by opening his mouth and inserting his foot. So, he remained quiet, and gestured for Sabine to lead the way.

Ezra landed on his back with a loud breath escaping thud. Sabine had gotten him into a compromising position again, and promptly threw him over her shoulder and onto the ground. He laid still for a moment, trying to catch his breath when Sabine held out a hand to him.

"You're showing a lot of improvement," she said as she grabbed Ezra by the arm and pulled him up.

"Says the girl who just kicked my butt for the eighth time already," Ezra grumbled while still trying to slow down his breathing.

"Ready to go again?"

"I think I've had enough of getting my butt handed to me for one day," a discouraged Ezra said.

"If you're tired of getting beat by me, then why not change things up?" Sabine asked, not wanting things to end this way.

"I've already tried changing things up, Sabine," Ezra answered, not taking his sparring with the usual gusto Sabine had been accustomed to. "Everything I try, you've got a response for. I'm not getting anywhere."

"Wasn't there something Kanan taught you about trying?" Sabine teased.

"I'm being serious, Sabine."

"Sorry," she said, realizing too late that Ezra was more frustrated than she'd anticipated. She didn't want to go back to her room where her problems were waiting for her. So, she needed to find a way to get his mind off of his struggling combat skills. She believed Ezra was too focused on himself instead of her, and that was half of his problem. Before Fenn's criticism, Ezra had been much more difficult to take down, and she knew he was a better fighter when it mattered. The trick was, how to bring that out of him in a training scenario. She placed a hand on his shoulder in a sign of comfort as she thought about what to do or say, and then it came to her.

"I've got an idea," she said. "Follow me."

Sabine didn't give Ezra a chance to respond, virtually dragging him behind her to the speeder bike area. Ezra watched quietly as Sabine updated the logs to account for them taking a speeder. Then they were off, quickly heading outside the base perimeter. Ezra didn't ask where they were headed, but he was glad that yet another failure at improving his combat skills was over. But that was until he realized she was going quite a ways from the rebel base. And she kept going and going until the base was completely out of sight, before finally pulling to a stop next to a large coral tree.

Still no words were spoken as Ezra followed Sabine up to a flat area within the coral tree, and she turned to face him. At that point, she removed her left shoulder pauldron, and tossed it over to him.

"I'll spot you one piece of armor," she said, before getting into a defensive fighting stance.

"What?"

"We'll start off like this," Sabine said. "The deal is, if you can take me down, even to a knee, I'll remove something else."

"What!?" Ezra asked, this time a squeak of surprise in his voice.

"Don't you want to see what's under my armor?" Sabine asked in a taunting manner.

"Well, yeah," Ezra answered, his cheeks burning red in embarrassment. "But why now?"

"I have my reasons," was all she offered. "So, are you going to try and take me down, or did we come all this way for nothing?"

"Okay," Ezra said nervously in anticipation. He began to circle her, looking for an angle to attack. He wondered if this was a dream. He'd never thought of such things being possible in a sparring match with Sabine before, but the idea was enticing to say the least. But before Ezra could give it more thought or pinch himself to be sure it was actually happening, Sabine was already moving in to attack. The next thing Ezra knew, he was flat on his back. Again.

Sabine followed up her hip toss by pinning Ezra for a couple seconds, before standing up and walking over to her recently discarded shoulder gauntlet. From there, she picked up the piece of armor and fixed it back to its intended place. She noticed, however, after fastening it on, that Ezra was looking at her in confusion.

"If you lose, I get to replace an article," she explained.

"So, you aren't going to make me take something off?" Ezra asked.

"As tempting as that may be, I don't think getting you naked will have the effect I'm looking for right now," Sabine answered, before getting back into a defensive stance. "Ready to go again?"

Ezra didn't answer verbally, but did begin to circle Sabine again. She'd caught him off guard before, with his mind going places he'd only done before when he was alone. This time though, when she went in for another take down, Ezra was able to anticipate her movement, and followed with a leg sweeping kick. He didn't realize it, but that move was only an inch away from making contact with both of Sabine's feet. Just the one leg was enough to knock her off balance, but if he'd managed to connect with the second leg, she was certain she wouldn't have had a chance to recover before it would be too late.

Sabine was pleased with Ezra's efforts. He seemed focused on the fight this time, instead of Fenn's comments or the hormonal thoughts about unclothing her. She wanted him to regain his confidence by giving him an incentive, even if she wasn't going to allow things to go too far. The most comfortable she would be was only removing her armor. The body glove and what was underneath would not be permitted, regardless of how well Ezra did. Even with them outside the confines of the rebel base and on a virtually desolate planet, allowing herself to lose all her clothing would be an embarrassing situation that she wasn't ready to do, and now it was her distracted mind that was taken advantage of.

Sabine wasn't sure how it happened, but before she knew it, Ezra had her pinned to the ground. He'd just beaten her, and she'd been too distracted to know what he did to take her down. Under normal circumstances, she would've been angry about it, but looking up and seeing the smile Ezra had on his face took any chance of that away. He was pleased he'd finally bested her, and she could see it clearly. She didn't know it, but he wasn't even considering the armor she would have to remove because of the stipulation she created. It was simply the fact that finally he proved he wasn't wasting his time with training, that he was improving, and that made her happy.

So, once Ezra lifted himself off of her, Sabine gladly removed her pauldron again, and they resumed the next of a stretch of sparring sessions. The ensuing battles ended with Ezra managing to knock Sabine off balance twice more. Both times he took her down to a knee, but didn't actually end in victory for Ezra in the traditional sense. Still, Sabine kept her word, removing the other shoulder pauldron followed by a vambrace. After that, Ezra became a little overconfident, and it cost him in epic fashion during the next match.

Sabine had to admit, there was an exhilarating feeling that Sabine didn't expect from their unique sparring. It came about once their sparring reached the point she had to remove the second vambrace. The knowledge that the next piece would be her breast plate, combined with the thought of wrestling Ezra without that protective layer separating them, had her body reacting in ways she wasn't anticipating. She wasn't sure if she liked it, but Sabine wasn't about to stop before Ezra. She'd just have to step up her game to keep from losing any more ground.

They both started the next sparring match more slowly than any others. That was one part strategy, but another part due to exhaustion. Both of them were breathing heavily because of how long they'd been at it. Sabine wasn't going to let Ezra take advantage of her aggression like he had before, and she thought her plan had worked when Ezra chose to reach in first with a jab. Sabine easily parried it, but he also followed up with another sweeping kick. Sabine was ready for that too, simply raising her front leg to step harmlessly over it. Then she saw an opening. Ezra didn't have enough time to react, as he was still rising up from the sweeping maneuver by the time Sabine grabbed him.

She ended up almost having him by his back, but Ezra did manage to keep Sabine's legs in front of his hip. And from that position, he was able to block her from trying another hip toss, but she had no intention of using that move this time. Instead, Sabine twisted Ezra's arm behind his back, causing him to let loose a quiet, whimpering grunt from the pain. She wanted to get the rest of her body behind Ezra and kick him down to his knees, but when she tried, Ezra did something unexpected. Just as Sabine was about to make her move, he managed to jump high enough to alleviate the pressure on his restrained arm, while also contorting his body midair, and put most of his weight on top of Sabine. She was strong, but not strong enough to hold his weight when she wasn't ready for it.

It turned out to be a messy landing, and nearly knocked the wind from both of them as Ezra landed on top of her. He couldn't do much at first, as she was still behind him, but his arm was temporarily freed. He needed to take advantage of that. Unfortunately, Sabine didn't take long enough to recover to give Ezra a chance to do anything. By the time Ezra made a move, Sabine's arm was wrapping around his neck, stalling what little momentum he created. She then hooked her left leg around Ezra's, but couldn't get her right leg out from under him. One leg seemed good enough, though, as Ezra began to struggle to breathe.

"Looks like you're going down again, Bridger," Sabine taunted into her opponent's ear.

And that turned out to be a mistake, as Ezra somehow managed to use her hooked left leg to assist him in turning to his left. He fought to squeeze his arm between their bodies, and using most of his strength, he eventually got it through. That allowed him to turn his body the rest of the way against a struggling Sabine. She desperately searched for something, anything that would get her out of this predicament, but Ezra was determined now.

Sabine did manage to get her legs wrapped around Ezra's torso, but he was using his weight and strength much better than ever before. It was almost as though a switch had been flipped inside him, and she was about to lose her breastplate because of it. She continued to struggle, engaging in some hand fighting until Ezra managed to grab both of her wrists, and pinned them to the ground on either side of her head.

Ezra was panting heavily as he hovered above her. He'd won. Somehow, against the odds, he'd defeated Sabine, but he didn't gloat. And he couldn't get any words to come out when their eyes suddenly locked on each other. Sabine stopped struggling to free herself at that moment, and suddenly was overcome with yet another strange feeling she couldn't name. She didn't know why, but at that moment, she found Ezra to be so much more attractive than she could ever recall. She tried to break eye contact to end the thought, but regretted that decision when her eyes seemed to move of their own accord down to his lips.

Meanwhile, Ezra was fixated on the person below him. He could sense the influx of different emotions coming from her without even trying. And her emotions were reflective of his own. There was something about that moment, something so different from any other he could think of. He knew he'd won the sparring match, but that didn't matter. All that mattered was the moment.

Sabine didn't know what came over her, but she suddenly was lifting her head. And as her lips gently touched his, both of their eyes widened upon the realization that they were sharing their first intimate kiss. There wasn't much to it because of the level of shock from each of them. Ezra hadn't expected it at all, and honestly, neither had Sabine. The sheer shock had neither of them moving for a moment until Ezra released one of Sabine's wrists, and moved his hand to gently cup her cheek. Sabine reciprocated, but eventually slid her hand to the base of Ezra's head, and threaded her fingers in his short hair.

Prue instinct seemed to take hold at that moment, as lips began to move against each other. Sabine couldn't believe how much enjoyment she felt. It was such fun, that she even allowed herself to open her mouth a little and gently sucked on Ezra's bottom lip, causing the young man to gasp in surprise. The next thing she knew, her breastplate was tossed to the side, and they went right back to kissing. It felt even more intimate, and Sabine began to lose herself in all the emotions she felt. Then, she felt Ezra's tongue brush against her lips, and she nearly melted into a puddle as she failed to hold back a small moan.

For Ezra, this was the culmination of a dream come true. He still almost wanted to pinch himself, but chose not to out of fear that the moment would end. It was better than anything he'd ever imagined, and he didn't want it to end. But he sensed that something wasn't quite right. He wasn't aware of it at the time, but his hand had slid down to Sabine's side, causing her to stiffen. She was still kissing him with nearly the same vigor, but she wasn't entirely comfortable in that moment. He needed to stop for her, so he did.

Their foreheads were still touching, their eyes still shut, as each of them fought to regain their breath and control over their emotions. "Sorry," he eventually between breaths.

"You didn't," Sabine started to respond as she tried to catch her breath too. "Do. Anything. Wrong."

"I got lost," he got out as his body finally began to come down from the high he'd been on. "In the moment."

"Me too," Sabine admitted.

A/N: This chapter was initially a little bit longer, but the more I thought about it, the more this juncture seemed to be the most appropriate spot to end it. Next up, we are getting closer to Trials of the Darksaber, where things will begin to pick up.