"I lived up to my end of the bargain. Your friends are safe."
Lost in thought as he gazed upon the luminescent tetrahedron clutched on his palm, Ezra turned momentarily to the source of the smooth voice emanating from behind, reining the contempt rising progressively with every second of the crimson Zabrak in his sight.
"Come, apprentice, sit." Maul gestured in his direction as he descended into a cross-legged position, watching as the Padawan began to mirror his stance.
"The holocron, if you please." Staring briefly at the Sith artifact within his possession, Ezra's indignant toss was reciprocated with Maul's simpler motioning, its Jedi counterpart hovering gently to his own hand. "I… doubt that you comprehend the power that is within your grasp."
"I know if we open these holocrons together, any question we ask will be answered," Ezra retorted, his impatience leaking through the hands fidgeting with the cubic holocron in his possession.
"So you do understand," Maul murmured. "Well, my apprentice, what is your question?"
"You know what I want." Short as their encounter on Malachor was, that Ezra laid himself bare under Maul's deception made it slightly insulting for the latter to even feign any sort of inquisitiveness regarding his motives. "I want to destroy the Sith."
"You are as ambitious as ever," Maul complimented, though their emptiness was not lost on Ezra. "As for me, I seek something… much simpler, yet equally elusive."
"What's that?"
"Hope." The narrowed eyes of his skeptical expression seemed to bear no effect on Maul's wistful demeanor — not that it would have altered the terms of his friends' situation to his favor. "Now, let us begin."
Relaxing hesitantly into a meditative pose, Ezra calmed himself as he reached out, willing his Jedi holocron to dismantle as it levitated towards its equally deconstructed Sith peer. Converging in a union announced in fizz and whirring, his eyelids slowly rose as the flash bore into the back of his head. There was an altogether surreal quality to this temporary vergence, its all-encompassing light slowly dimming and resolving until…
"Wait," Ezra murmured, "I see something…"
"I see… nothing!" Maul growled. "Only oblivion! What do you see? What is it?!"
"I see…"
"Tell me. Tell me what you see!"
"I see…"
As the unity suddenly erupted into a bright flare of ruby and amethyst rays, Ezra stared into the heart of the vergence, attempting to filter through the bulk of the strange and bizarre images seeping vigorously into his mind — all he needed was the answer to the destruction of the Sith…
"Ezra! Ezra, listen to me! Look away!" His concentration faltered briefly, having looked to the origin of the voice… Was that Kanan?
"No!" Maul snapped. "Stay focused, apprentice, and gain the knowledge you desire!"
"Remember Bendu's warning. Turn away before it's too late!" Kanan urged.
"But it's so close! The key to destroying the Sith, just a little farther…" Ezra pleaded, before a particular image — one that would be stuck in his memory — flooded his mind:
A rocky island, far but not distant in the middle of the sea. A quaint temple atop its rugged terrain, inhabited only by a few completing their affairs. And at their center, a bearded man in brown and beige robes, attached to his waist the weapon of a Jedi…
"I see him…" came the triumphant declaration from Maul.
"An island temple…" Ezra commented.
"It's not worth it, Ezra. Trust me."
There was only a moment to digest the counsel — but the moment was all he needed. It was inconceivable to allow Maul to achieve victory. His focus coaxing the holocrons to separate, the dichotomous artifacts struggled to overcome their almost magnetic attraction, until their split coincided in an explosive burst — one that propelled Ezra into the wall and the realm of the unconscious.