(A/N)- Back at it again with the Bad Things Happen Bingo prompts!

This one was "Forced To Kneel/Bow", requested for Ezra Bridger. I was only too happy to oblige.

This is set somewhere early in the six-month gap between Season Two and Season Three, not immediately post-Malachor, more like a couple weeks to a month out at least, but not strictly canon-adherent. Consider this more like a "What If?" speculation.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Ha ha if I owned Star Wars we wouldn't be cancelling more projects than we put out. /salty


Ambush

Ezra's eyes were peeled to the viewport as the gray-blue planet came into view. There was a single orbital station hovering over one of the northern hemispheres, but very little sign of activity on the surface below.

Hera nudged the yoke gently, taking them into a slow descent out of range of the orbital station.

She leaned back in the pilot's seat of the Phantom a bit, hands casual and relaxed on the yoke. "All right," she announced. "We're here."

Ezra scooted a little closer to the edge of his seat, staring out in fascination. "Do we know what we're looking for?" he asked. The details Hera had given him when she'd found him wandering the perimeter of the Atollon base and offered him the opportunity to accompany her on the mission had been scant and vague. But he'd still leapt at the chance to get offworld and actually do something rather than be alone with his thoughts.

"Intel only said the Empire was guarding a cache somewhere down there. 'Arcane secrets' was all it specified," she told him, reaching up and flicking a few switches to begin the landing. "Polar mountain region, about three-point-five clicks away from that big lake."

Ezra punched the coordinates into the onboard navigator, glancing aside at Hera. "What kind of arcane secrets would the Empire be interested in?" he pressed.

Hera gave him a rueful smile. "I guess we'll find out," she quipped lightly.

Ezra nodded, dropping his eyes and attention respectfully.

Hera's smile faded. She had expected a glib quip back, a little irreverent comment, delivered with the same playful enthusiasm that would have shone in his eyes before. But Ezra was stoic and silent next to her, his tapping heel the only sign of his usual fidgety energy.

She turned her head forward, concentrating on her approach, and tried not to be disappointed.

-SWR-

They landed without incident, hiding the Phantom in a patch of thick shrubbery and making their approach to the Imperial outpost at the base of one of the mountains.

Hera peered over the top of some scrabby, snow-covered bushes, noting the two Scout Troopers pacing in regular intervals in front of yawning cave mouth, set a little above the main encampment.

"If I had to guess," she said, slowly slipping her macros up to her eyes. "I'd say that's probably our mysterious cache." She strained her eyes through the binocs for a few moments, adjusting and readjusting the zoom, trying to bring things into focus.

She pursed her lips.

"Ezra?" she prompted, dropping the macrobinoculars for a moment.

He had his eyes closed and his hand low to the ground, sensing out with the Force.

"It's some kind of cavern system," he said, feeling out the edges of the maze of tunnels behind the rock. He opened his eyes, and there was some excitement in them as he told her, "I think there's another way in."

He raised up a bit from his crouch, motioning.

"This way," he said.

Hera followed along behind him as he picked their way.

-SWR-

The thinly ice-lined tunnels twisted and turned, but Ezra seemed certain of his direction as he guided Hera through, the two of them eventually emerging into a large open chamber, crusted with icicles and frost, crates and piles of items stacked and towering up above their heads sometimes.

Hera whistled low, creeping forward as she came in for a closer look at the assorted items. "These are... Jedi holocrons!" she exclaimed, spotting a row of the intricately delicate metal squares lining a table. "And lightsaber components!" She point up towards the top of a stack. "And that! That's from the temple of the Guardians of the Whills on Jakku!" she said, green eyes lighting up in awe. "I'd seen pictures of it in textbooks on Ryloth but..." Her lekku swished as she shook her head. "...I've never seen it in person!"

Ezra looked around and marveled, seeing so many items and relics that he knew he'd never seen before, but that rang with a familiarity in the Force, some kind of untold history whispering just beneath it. Some of the echoes were darker than others—there might have been Sith artifacts mixed in, he thought—but it all felt like each item had a story to tell, a voice in the Force that demanded to be heard, a tangible piece of the past in every gilded edge, every bead, every trinket.

There was a song, also, something warm and like home, calling out to him from one of the crates.

He approached it curiously, surrendering to the pull on his heart and mind.

-SWR-

Hera was busy rummaging through the artifacts, poking into boxes and through dust-covered shelves.

"What do you think the Empire wants with all of this?" she heard Ezra asking absently, looking through the items himself.

She shook her head, lekku flapping. "To hoard them, probably. Or worse, destroy them." A bit of sadness shaved through her heart as she picked up a small pottery piece, crudely made under the glaze. It looked like something a youngling at the Jedi Temple might have made for a class project.

"Hera..." came Ezra's voice, trembling reverently.

Hera turned around quickly and saw that Ezra had his hands cupped around a glowing shard he'd pulled from an open box next to him. His eyes were shining brighter than she'd seen in a while, full of the childlike wonder and innocence he hadn't shown since before Malachor, both hands holding the tiny piece of glasslike crystal and gazing at it tremulously.

His blue eyes flicked up at her, alight.

"It's a kyber crystal," he breathed. He glanced down at it, amazed. "I... I think it's mine," he said.

"Yours?" Hera repeated, confused. She took a step closer to him. "Is it the one you lost on Malachor?"

He squinted, his brows pinching as he studied the shard. "I don't... think so..." he said absently, turning the piece over in his fingers. After a couple moments of careful study he shook his head. "Yeah no, it's got a different shape. But... I can't help but feel..." he trailed, his gaze growing distant, "...like it's meant for me."

Hera felt a warmth and a thrill flickering through her, recalling something Kanan had said once about how the Force manifested for him—"Like you can feel a pulse of cosmic destiny in a mundane moment," he'd said. It certainly seemed like that now, Ezra caught up in the soft glow off the kyber shard and a happier expression on his face than she'd seen since...

The moment of beauty and profundity passed. Ezra's smile faded, his head and shoulders slumping.

"I wish..." he said, staring down sadly at the crystal in his hands. "...I wish Kanan could have been here."

Hera's heart broke for him, a wellspring of sorrow bubbling up inside her. Her features pinched, arms reaching forward almost automatically. "Oh Ezra," she said in sympathy, wrapping her arms around him, tucking her hand behind his head, fingers running through the too-short hair.

And then her words stopped because what could she say? Kanan was... struggling. He'd pulled away from Ezra, from the Rebellion, even from her, and his absence and distance ached, heavily present even if they were nominally in the same room. Hera saw how much both her Jedi were hurting and it tore her in two, wanting to pull Kanan from the mire of his depression while at the same time wanting to scream at him to wake up and realize what his silence and absence was doing to Ezra.

All she could offer the boy was her own meager comfort, threading her fingers through his cropped hair, missing its normal length. Sabine had, apparently, helped him cut it a week ago, and it felt so odd to Hera as she carded her fingers against his skull, shushing him and holding him close. He shook with heavily-repressed sobs against her, shuddering against her chestplate, face squeezed tight.

"Well," came a sudden voice in the quiet room, cold and foreign and immediately chilling. "How touching."

Ezra stiffened in her arms, a soft gasp sounding in her earcones, quiet and fearful. Hera felt an immediate protective bristle run over her spine, looking over Ezra's shoulder as she carefully detached from him.

There was a strange Zabrak standing in one of the tunnel openings, his hand idly around a triangular, silver-lined stone device, feral yellow eyes fixed on her youngest Spectre with an expression she found... unnerving.

He was horned and tattooed and everything about him pinged Hera's long-honed danger sense alarms.

Her hand strayed carefully towards her blaster.

-SWR-

Ezra swallowed audibly, tension coiling all along his shoulders, moving in front of Hera with one hand out stiffly to shield her.

"What do you want?" he demanded quietly, firmly, deliberately placing himself between them.

Maul looked horribly amused as he stared at Ezra.

"I came here for this," he said nonchalantly, lifting the stone whatever-it-was in his left hand. The grin he sent them was like a horrible stab of dread in Ezra's heart. "But it appears as though Fate is offering me something better."

He took a step forward.

"Get back!" Ezra snapped, voice sharp and harsh and angry as fury bubbled up inside him.

Maul stopped approaching, but reached a hand out, inviting him closer. "What is the matter, Ezra?" he asked, infuriatingly calm. "I only want to talk."

A cold chill clamped around his heart and Ezra had to restrain himself with all his might not to send the energy surging forward to swat the man away like an insignificant nuisance.

"You hurt Kanan!" he yelled, backing up, still shielding Hera with his arm, the kyber crystal clutched tight in his other hand. "I'm not listening to anything you have to say!"

He felt Hera stiffen behind him at that, twinging with recognition. The gesture went unnoticed by Maul, who narrowed his eerie yellow eyes at Ezra as if studying something hidden.

"Yet it seems..." he mused, expression pensive, "...you still took some of my words to heart." Ezra felt an uncomfortable flash of feeling like he was being searched, and then Maul asked him knowingly, "Where is the holocron, Ezra?"

Did you already open it? was the unspoken follow-up. Ezra felt a twinge of guilt and flinched. He quickly tried to banish his anger but it only started replacing with fear, especially as Maul took another ominous step forward.

"Why isn't your Master here to protect you?" Maul asked evenly.

Ezra's throat tightened, hearing a vague threat behind the words. "I..." he stammered. "It... it's..."

Maul's expression was almost gleeful. "He blames you... doesn't he?" he guessed, eyes cruel.

"No!" Ezra cried, even as the sharp pang in his heart resonated with Maul's words, choking him. "He—"

"Why don't you save yourself the trouble of waiting for him to toss you aside," Maul suggested, grinning a bit, vindictive, "and come with me..."

The hand reached out again, palm open.

"...apprentice?" Maul all but purred.

Ezra's voice strangled, his head surging with wordless terror.

-SWR-

Hera had heard enough.

She didn't know who this man was, exactly, but two things were crystal clear:

He had hurt Kanan. He frightened Ezra.

That was all she needed to know.

She pulled her blaster. The Zabrak was so focused on Ezra he didn't see her, didn't notice until after she'd shot, ducking out from behind Ezra's still-outstretched arm to aim and getting off three bolts in rapid succession.

He snarled as they hit, staggering back into the wall, tripping into it.

Hera kept her blaster pointed straight out as she called back.

"Ezra, run!" she ordered.

Ezra stumbled around and bolted. Hera lingered a moment more, firing again. But when a red lightsaber blade flashed out to intercept her shots her eyes widened, and she whipped around and followed after her son.

Her free hand darted out, knocking down crates into the path behind her; her blaster aimed up at stalactites and shot them from the ceiling to the ground, anything to slow the Zabrak down. Her heart was pounding, but her thoughts were methodical and clear.

Outrun him. That was all they had to do. Just keep far enough ahead of him that they could get to the shuttle.

A stitch began to ache painfully at her side as she kept close on the heels of a frantically fleeing Ezra.

-SWR-

Ezra had the irrational worry as he ran that he would take a wrong turn and come up against a dead end, be trapped against a wall as Maul closed in on them, but the pressure around his chest lessened slightly in relief as he spotted the entrance they'd come through, just a few yards ahead.

He sped up, wanting desperately to be out of there. Wanting to run all the way back to Atollon and throw himself against Kanan's chest.

His voice gave a little choked hitch. Kanan wasn't here.

The chill open air hit his face, and frost crunched under his boots. He stumbled a moment, looking frantically for the Phantom, hearing Hera emerge behind him. There were distant shouts from the Imperial post as well, and Ezra glimpsed the Scout Troopers who had been stationed at the cavern entrance disappearing rapidly through it, other white uniforms combing through the thickets at the mountain's base.

And then from behind, too, too close at hand, thundering metal footsteps and the buzzing hum of a lightsaber.

Ezra reached instinctively towards his side, panicked with a startling flash of horror when he remembered his lightsaber was gone—Idiot! What's that shard of kyber in your hand even for, huh? he chided himself immediately—turned around as a loud burst of quick blaster shots came from Hera.

He looked back, his lungs locking like they had turned to solid blocks of ice, watched Maul knock Hera's blaster aside and reach in a crimson and black hand for her throat.

"Hera!" he cried in terror, scrambling back towards them.

Maul lifted the Twi'lek pilot like she was almost weightless, didn't respond to the kicks that slammed and scraped against his legs and stomach, the lashing arms trying to punch at him. Blood dripped from his wounds and he stood out starkly against the gray and white mountainside, menacing and frightening-looking.

"I wonder..." he growled, voice low and dark. "If I kill you, will it break him?" His humming red blade angled to point towards Hera's stomach. "Will the Jedi blame him for this too?" he asked himself out loud.

Cold dark fury and fear echoed through Ezra, rising up like static ring inside his ears.

"No! Stop! Don't you hurt her!" he yelled, feet rooting, tingles running along his arms. Small pebbles rattled near his feet. Don't you dare! screamed inside his mind.

Maul turned his head with casual indifference. "What are you going to do to stop me?" he challenged, voice absolutely chilling.

The pebbles went still. Ezra froze up, the static inside him petering out. His focus was broken, desperate thoughts chasing each other one after another. What could he do, he didn't have a lightsaber, he didn't even have a weapon, the Stormtroopers were getting closer, drawn by the commotion, he had nothing, nothing except—

"I..." Ezra swallowed thickly. His hands shook. "I'll do whatever you ask," he said. "Anything."

Maul's eyebrows raised. "Anything?" he pressed.

Ezra tried not to shudder. "Y-yes."

Maul considered that a moment. Stirring, he adjusted Hera roughly, bringing her against his chest with his hand still around her throat, raising his saber up near her left earcone. The red glow splashed ominously on her green skin. She tried to hide a flinch, grabbing at his arm.

"Then get on your knees and swear an oath to me, Ezra," he said. "Swear you will renounce the ways of the Jedi and serve me... as my apprentice," he added, smirking cruelly.

Hera jerked in his grip. "Ezra, no! Don't—"

Maul tightened the hand on her tender throat, cutting off her protest. Her voice strangled, and Ezra felt his heart give a stutter. He was frozen for a moment, distantly hearing the Stormtroopers crashing through the brush.

The red lightsaber moved a fraction closer to Hera's face.

"On you knees, Ezra," Maul repeated.

Trembling, fingernails digging tightly against his palms, Ezra knelt, folding his legs slowly underneath him. Shame heated his face and his voice hitched and stuttered as he tried to speak.

"I... I swear to serve you."

He knew what was supposed to come after that, what Maul wanted him to say, but he couldn't make himself speak the words, he couldn't.

Maul seemed satisfied enough, dropping Hera with a hard shove. She fell to the ground, coughing, limbs and lekku splayed.

Ezra dropped his eyes as Maul stepped towards him, feeling humiliated and queasy in the pit of his stomach. His instincts screamed for him to run, ever-conscious of Maul's approach and the Stormtroopers closing in, but his limbs wouldn't obey, paralyzed and tensed.

Maul offered his hand once again.

"Come then," he said. "I have much to teach—"

Hera sprang up, lurching in four long steps and swinging the heavy end of a fallen branch right into the side of Maul's head.

Maul grunted, toppling to the side heavily.

Hera dropped the branch and grabbed Ezra's arm. "Come on!" she said, pulling him quickly to his feet.

Adrenaline surged through him, breaking past the lock on his limbs. He could hear his heart pounding loud in his ears. He and Hera ran, blaster shots beginning to fly over their heads as the Stormtroopers spotted them.

But the troopers were too late to catch them; with a crash of leaves and branches they made it to the Phantom.

Hera pushed him inside first, then threw herself into the pilot's seat and started up the shuttle. The floor jerked beneath him and Ezra almost fell over, grabbing for the chair.

His fingers dug in and didn't let go until he realized the jostling had stopped and the Phantom was sailing smoothly through hyperspace.

That was when he realized he was shaking and that Hera was watching him in concern.

-SWR-

Her youngest Spectre was pale, expression haunted and gaunt. He took his hand off the back of the co-pilot's chair slowly, unpeeling his fingers one by one.

A choked sound escaped his mouth, mixed relief and fear and Hera reached gently for his elbow and guided him down into the chair. She folded both his hands in hers, and the soft glow of the kyber crystal slipped out from between his loosened fingers, glimmering in his widened eyes.

"S—sorry," he mumbled. "I'm—I'm sorry Hera, I—I didn't know he'd—he—"

"Shh," she shushed, soothingly, stroking the backs of his hands with her thumbs. "We're safe now. It's okay."

A long breath shuddered out of him, his back sagging as he untensed.

Hera watched him slowly relax, waiting for a long moment before speaking. "Was that...?" she started to ask.

"Yeah," Ezra confirmed soberly. His chin dipped with a small nod. "That was him. That was Maul."

Hera bit her lip, then nodded softly in acknowledgement. A storm of emotions was brewing inside her, thundering anger and the aftershock of fear—for herself, for Ezra—but she pushed it down for the moment, choosing to focus on what she could control, and that was comforting the shaken boy in front of her.

"C'mere," she urged quietly, pulling him into an embrace.

Ezra's features softened as her arms wrapped around his shoulders. He let his nose press into her shoulder and exhaled warmly.

Hera traced fingers through his soft, still-too-short hair, aching that she couldn't do more, that she didn't know what to say to comfort him, trying to convey everything through her gestures.

I'm not hurt. You're still here. He didn't take you. It wasn't your fault. It wasn't your fault.

Ezra sniffled a little bit, and Hera wondered if he could sense what she was trying to tell him. She held him as he calmed down, the kyber glow growing brighter and brighter as he unclenched his fist.

She let her hands settle on his shoulders.

"Shoulda clubbed him harder," she quipped.

Ezra gave a wheezy chuckle, grinning a bit. "Yeah, you should've," he agreed. "But hey, hopefully with any luck the troopers got to him," he said, pulling back.

Hera smiled, turning in her seat to face forward. Her hands grabbed the yoke handles as she settled in her seat, squeezing them with tight fingers as her anger crept back. Knowing their luck, the bastard has given the Empire the slip. And from what little she knew, it seemed like Maul would be pursuing them further. Pursuing Ezra.

She and Kanan were overdue for a talk.


(A/N)- And then Hera reams Kanan out and Kanan is horrified and goes and hugs Ezra and there are tears and apologies and nothing bad happened to them again I mean what? Who said that?

Hope you enjoyed my readers!

You can request a prompt/character over on Tumblr. See this post: h tt [#]p s: / / tari silmarwen . tu mb lr . c[#]o m / post / 673415204767465472 / im- doing- a-bad-things-happen- bingo- because (delete the spaces and the special characters in the brackets)