AN: I'd like to say a big thanks to my beta, Artemisarrow! Without her, this story wouldn't be the way it is now.

And how is it I say these things

so easily to you

– "Enchantment Passing Through", Aida on Broadway

Maul sensed Eldra in the training room, and couldn't help but quicken his pace. When he opened the door, he paused at the sight of her.

He re-noticed details about her which he'd forgotten during their months apart, like how her blue eyes were a shade darker than her skin tone. The most striking detail, though, was that she didn't seem as radiant as he remembered. Or perhaps he always envisioned her being surrounded by the light side of the Force.

She was evading his training droids, deflecting the shots they fired at her. Leaping from platform to platform, she was able to stay ahead of them with almost ridiculous ease. Considering they had been programmed with the most difficult setting, this was an impressive feat. When the time was right to make her move, she managed to get behind them, one by one, and deactivate them in quick succession.

It was a magnificent sight, watching her in action. Maul was always too busy fighting her to really appreciate how well she fought; he hadn't watched her like this since the Moon of Drazkel, when they'd teamed up to fight off their mutual enemies. He made a note to let her train with the droids more often, just so he could watch her.

When the last droid was deactivated, Maul wasted no time in activating one side of his lightsaber and leaping at her. He knew that with his injuries, it would be unwise to fight her, especially after witnessing such a display of skill. But then Maul so often proved that Darth Sidious had a right to be concerned about his impatience and arrogance, and this time was no exception. He yearned to fight her again; to fall back into their intricate dance that was not just challenging but also relaxing.

He wasn't surprised when she turned and blocked his attack, smirking at him.

"You thought I wouldn't notice you watching me?"

"No. You wouldn't be a Jedi worthy of my time if you didn't know I was there."

As their lightsabers clashed with speeds unseen by the untrained eye, Maul noticed almost right away that she was enjoying the fight as much as he was, which was a welcome change compared to his battles in the prison's arena. She wasn't even tired from her session with the droids, and her resilience and energy pleased him.

But he soon realised that his wounds were hindering him, especially the cut on his arm. It was like they were screaming at him; telling him that he needed to stop and rest. But he stubbornly ignored them and pushed himself to keep going. His pain was his power. It fuelled his actions. He had returned after a victorious mission; after all he had endured, fighting a Jedi Padawan should be nothing in comparison.

Then Eldra's lightsaber swung too close to his neck, close enough for him to feel his skin start to burn.

And suddenly he was back in the arena, facing a deadly opponent with sharp claws who kept attempting to slash open his neck. The enemy was long dead; Maul had impaled him in the gut with his horns. But in that moment, he was as alive as Maul himself was, and the young Sith cried out in shock before using the Force to push his opponent away. He prepared himself to charge and finish off his enemy in the same manner as before, but the flashback passed and he found himself standing in the training room again.

Eldra was leaning against the far wall, rubbing her head. Maul realised with a start that had he not come back to himself and charged…

He would have killed her. And the thought of her being gone frightened him.

With a roar of frustration, Maul disengaged his lightsaber and stormed over to the medical unit. He rested his open palms on the flat surface, leaning his weight against it and allowing himself a moment to refocus. Taking in deep breaths, he felt the Force move around him, and through his alliance with it he immersed himself in the familiarity of his apartment.

The presence of light in the form of Eldra Kaitis helped more than he wanted to admit.

After a minute or so, the stillness of the training room was disturbed by her footsteps as she cautiously walked towards him. He kept his back to her, knowing that Jedi honour would prevent her from striking him down while he was in such a vulnerable position. When she reached him, she didn't speak; she instead picked up her canteen of water and drank from it. They leaned against the unit, side by side, neither saying a word.

Eldra spoke first, and Maul could feel her eyes on him as she said, "What happened?"

Maul clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. He didn't want her pity. "It is none of your concern, Jedi."

"It is when my sparring partner comes back battered and bruised, with PTSD flashbacks that'll leave him out of commission for who knows how long."

Hearing her call him my partner sent a shiver of pleasure down his spine. It was the first time he'd ever felt such a sensation, and he didn't know what to do with it.

And it didn't look like pity, what he could see in her eyes. She was looking at him like she cared, and Maul couldn't help but soften just a bit in response. "I can't tell you the details of my mission. Just know that I was successful. But after that victory, I should have beaten you."

"You're hurt," she gently pointed out. "Your body needs time to rest."

He turned away from her, refusing to admit that she was right. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her open a cupboard and bring out a bacta patch. Realising what she intended to do, Maul instinctively curled in on himself and defensively pulled his injured arm closer. "I don't need your help," he hissed.

Eldra rolled her eyes. "Asking for and receiving help isn't a weakness. Besides, you did the same for me after our first sparring match. At least let me return the favour."

Maul still wasn't sure what had compelled him to do that. He told himself it was to make sure she healed before they sparred again, but then she could have done it herself.

Stubborn and defiant, he wanted to refuse her help. It wasn't like he needed it; he'd been patching himself up all his life, because his master certainly hadn't helped him. The droid used to help him when he was younger, but only in instances when he'd been physically unable to help himself. And it had been years since he'd last needed such assistance.

But the way she was looking at him…

He sensed the light side of the Force dancing around her, calling out to him. In response, he could feel himself slowly uncurl, until finally he let go of his injured arm and held it out to her. Maul told himself that there was nothing wrong in letting her return the favour. She slowly rolled up his sleeve, being careful not to let the fabric touch his cut. Then, with gentle hands, she began to apply the bacta patch.

Maul didn't flinch once. He was too focussed on what her touch was doing to him.

Whenever her skin brushed against his, it felt like fire. But it was not the same as the painful burns he received from lightsaber scorches, or the kind of burns that were left behind after his master hit him with Force lightning. It was the kind of heat one felt while sat in front of an open fire, after being out in the cold for too long.

And there was more to it than that. The warmth was calling out to something within him he couldn't quite reach, at least not yet.

Too soon, it was over. The bacta patch was applied, and Eldra took a step back. There was a small smile on her face, and Maul decided that it was… nice. It made him want to return the gesture, but he refrained.

"Let yourself recover. We can start sparring again when you're ready." And with that, she walked out of the training room, leaving Maul alone with his thoughts.

The second she was gone, Maul could feel his anxiety building up. While he had allowed his guard to drop when he first entered the apartment, his reaction to the droid's sudden appearance was enough to convince him that it would be a while before he felt secure again, even in his own home. And the fight didn't just further prove this point, but also indicated that he would need to recover from his mental scars more than his physical ones before he could go back to sparring casually.

But Eldra… When she'd been close to him, all of his worries had been non-existent. The feel of her presence and the emotions that came with it were foreign to him, and while part of him wanted to stay away and latch onto the familiar feelings of anger and hate, a stronger part of him wanted to dive down deep into these new feelings.

It wasn't against the Sith Code to explore these emotions, after all. They were supposed to drive him. His master had shown him the power of anger, of hate and of fear. Perhaps it was up to Maul himself to discover what kind of power could be harnessed from the emotions that remained.

Only, he didn't want to rely on her. That would show weakness.

So Maul retreated to his quarters in order to rest, forcibly distancing himself from her. But when he laid down and closed his eyes, all he could see was the faces of his dead enemies from the prison, returning to haunt his nightmares. Sleep alluded him thanks to their screams echoing in his mind, and Maul tossed and turned before giving up and jumping out of his bed. He fidgeted with his lightsaber as he paced his room, debating on what to do.

Eldra said he needed to rest, but how could he when even now he was subconsciously expecting some kind of brute to break into his room and try to kill him? He could only see one option that would solve his problem, and the part of him that so desperately wanted to be like Sidious rebelled at the very thought of it.

It was a short rebellion.

Maul set down his lightsaber and left his quarters. He took a moment to sense where she was, before following her presence into the main apartment area. She was sat down on the sofa, reading something on the datapad with her brows knotted together, and Maul decided that he liked the expression. He wasn't sure why, and thought it best not to think about it too hard.

The young Sith saw the moment when she sensed him; her body went still, and her eyes stopped moving across the screen. She stayed that way, as if she was confirming to herself that he was really standing there, before she finally turned to meet his gaze. Her eyes were filled with both confusion and suspicion, and while Maul understood the latter, he didn't like the fact that she was looking at him in that way.

"Did you want something?" she asked. "Or have you finally decided to interrogate me about the Jedi Order?"

"No." Maul shook his head. "All I need to know about the Jedi is that they are my enemies, and I must destroy them to fulfil my destiny."

"Hate to break this to you, but considering your first fight against a Jedi ended in me burying you under a lot of rocks, you may want to rethink what your destiny might be." Her smile told him that she meant her words in good humour, and he found himself smiling back.

Before he realised what he was doing, and repressed it back down.

He took a seat at the other end of the sofa, mindful enough to know to keep his distance. For a moment, he considered telling her that he couldn't sleep; considered telling her about all of the unspeakable horrors he'd faced while locked up, and how shaken he truly was after all he had endured. He wanted to tell her with a desperation that he didn't understand that the whole experience had forced him to question his purpose as a disciple of the Sith, because none of what he'd seen should have affected him at all, but it had and he didn't understand what that meant…

Instead, he kept quiet and let her presence relax him.

Eldra kept glancing sideways at him, like she was expecting him to do or say something. Maul quickly deduced that her actions probably had something to do with what had happened between them before he'd left on his mission. She was expecting him to bring it up, or react in a certain way. But he didn't see the need to. To talk about what they'd already both felt from each other would be pointless.

Eventually, Eldra stopped with the glances. After putting the datapad down onto the table, she brought a hand up to her head as if to brush something aside, but paused when her hand met nothing but air. Her hand slowly lowered, and Maul could see the feeling of loss in her eyes. She'd done this action many times before; Maul had managed to figure out after the second time what she was doing.

"You should stop doing that. Your braid is long gone."

She sighed. "I know. Xev Xrexus took it when she captured me. Since she didn't give it to the sleemo who bought me, she probably destroyed it. Surprised she didn't do it with me watching. She took some kind of twisted pleasure in telling me every day that I'd never be a Jedi again."

"Hardly a shock that she failed. You will always be a Jedi."

He could see her surprise at his words, followed by confusion as to how she could respond to them. She chose instead to stay silent.

At least, at first. "I was angry. Angry at the Force for taking my master from me. Angry at that bugslut for having the gall to sell me off to the highest bidder. Angry at you and your master for keeping me here against my will – I'm still mad about that, but it's mostly aimed at your master. And… I was angry at myself, for, well, being angry."

"There is no shame in anger," said Maul. "The power you can forge with your anger is a weapon all on its own."

"But it's not the Jedi way."

Maul almost snarled, but fought the urge. "The Jedi's lack of emotion blinds them to the real power of the Force. Your emotions are part of you, and to deny them is to deny your full potential. What kind of life is that, feeling nothing?"

"We have emotions," she argued. "We just don't let them control us."

"From my point of view, it is the same thing."

She was silent again, though this time it only lasted a few moments before she turned on him. "Like the Sith's way of life is any better, being completely driven by emotions. Actually, not even that; you're driven by negative emotions. Sure, being stoic your whole life probably isn't healthy for anyone, but your extreme isn't exactly the way to live, either."

Maul ignored her, just like he ignored how the anger and hate and emptiness ate away at his soul bit by bit with every passing day. He would never give up the dark side. But he wouldn't mind having a spark of light close at hand, whenever he needed to drive the emptiness away.

They never did talk about what happened in Maul's quarters, which Eldra decided was for the best.

The next several months passed by in a blur of routine. Unlike the months when Maul was away on his mission, Eldra's aching loneliness had subsided somewhat, but it didn't go away. It probably never would, given that her only companions were a Sith Lord and a droid, and she was still separated from those she cared for.

Eldra's birthday came and went. She didn't mention it to Maul, because she was certain without a shadow of a doubt that Sith didn't celebrate them. Maul certainly didn't celebrate his.

She grew used to her environment with a passive acceptance that sat uncomfortably with her, but couldn't be helped if she was going to survive. It was ironic that she was finally learning what her master had tried to teach her over and over, the lesson of patience, when said master was long gone. It helped that her circumstances were bearable; she was being fed, lived in a room instead of a cell, and wasn't being tortured in any way. But she never lost sight of the fact that she was being held against her will.

Though sometimes it didn't feel like a prison. Especially when Maul started to seek her out just to talk.

At first, she thought it was because they weren't sparring, since she'd persuaded him to take a break from it in order to recover. It didn't surprise her that someone like Maul got bored easily, so it made sense for him to find other means of entertaining himself when he couldn't fight – even if that meant holding a conversation with his worst enemy.

(But Eldra was starting to suspect that the young Sith didn't hate her, at least not anymore. She also suspected that the droid was beginning to like her as well, despite his vocal complaints and insistence that he would rather deactivate himself than spend an afternoon with her.)

Only, when they started sparring again, Maul continued to find her at random points in the day and start conversations with her. She didn't know whether or not to be suspicious, but that was the most baffling part: he seemed to have no ulterior motive for talking to her. It was getting easier by the day to read him; to pick up on the way he carried himself, his facial cues and the different emotions in his eyes. And from what she could read, he seemed to come and talk to her simply because he wanted to.

She was beginning to learn that Sith were more complicated than 'Dark Side Bad: Cut in Half with Lightsaber'.

With Maul's return to sparring, Eldra could openly admit that she enjoyed their fights, mostly thanks to her boredom when he'd been gone. After accepting that fact, their fights more often than not ended in a stalemate, which suited Eldra just fine. She didn't know what would happen if she was the one winning all the time, but if Maul started winning all of their fights, she knew his master would no longer see a use for her and order Maul to kill her.

(The training also allowed Eldra to get better at the six Forms of combat she had learnt in the Temple. She favoured Forms II and IV, Makashi and Ataru, but it was nice to practise the rest. Maul was a master at Forms VI and VII, Niman and Juyo. He offered to train her in Juyo, but she declined.)

Sometimes, Maul would tell her to fight the training droids so he could watch her. Other times, she would watch Maul train on his own with the droids. Watching him from an outside perspective allowed her to see just how ferocious he fought. He reminded her of a Vornskr, and she thought to herself it was no wonder he was a master of Form VII, often referred to as The Way of the Vornskr.

It was on one such day about a year since her captivity had begun (but she was ignoring that reminder as best she could) that she was watching Maul do battle against the training droids. She too had also fought him that day, a fight that had ended in a stalemate. When the droids were deactivated, Maul sat down next to her on the floor of the training room, and she handed him a canteen of water.

"Do you think I could ask Venny to paint a picture of Xev Xrexus on one of the droids?" she asked him. "Since I can't actually kill her for real, I'll settle for the next best thing."

"Xev Xrexus is dead."

"She is?" Eldra hadn't heard anything to the contrary, but then holojournalists never reported on what was going on in the criminal underworld for obvious reasons. The majority of people who lived on the upper levels of Coruscant liked to pretend that crime was non-existent and everything was perfect inside their little bubble. Back when Adi Gallia had taken down the Krayn slave ring, there hadn't been a single bit of news coverage about it.

(But the holojournalists did report on a number of businesses that suddenly went bust afterwards. When Eldra had read the old holojournals during her time as a Padawan, she'd been both shocked and disgusted that so-called "legitimate" companies had managed to profit off of slave labour in the heart of the Republic, where slavery was supposed to be illegal. She'd done a lot of growing up since then, and wasn't even surprised by the amount of illegal activity that was covered up by the politicians.)

"She suspected what I was, so I had to kill her," Maul continued. "It was after my master and I brought you onto his ship."

Eldra refused to flinch at the mention of her capture. "Jedi aren't supposed to take a life unless they have no other choice; to save their own life or the lives of others. But you won't find me mourning over that bugslut."

She realised that she didn't even care that Maul most likely killed her when the woman was unarmed. She told herself that a woman like Xev Xrexus was better off dead so she couldn't hurt anymore beings in the galaxy. With the amount of profit she'd made from the auction, it wouldn't have surprised Eldra if she'd tried in the future to kidnap another Jedi Padawan (or even a Jedi Knight) to get an even higher payday.

The thought of any of her friends in her position made Eldra sick to her stomach.

"What about the people who came to the auction?" she asked. "Did you kill them, too?"

"No. They had all given up the hunt and left by the time I arrived," said Maul. "The ones who were on the station never saw me in action, so there was no point in going after them. And the ones on the ground who did see me were killed by you and myself."

For a millisecond, she was regretful that Maul hadn't killed the rest of the buyers. Then she realised how dark her thoughts sounded, along with her thoughts about the death of Xev Xrexus. Her feelings about her previous captor warred with one another; gladness that she was dead and couldn't hurt anyone else, against regret that a life had been snuffed out.

Perhaps this was why the Jedi suppressed their emotions. Perhaps it was better to feel nothing, so there was no conflict.

She released her thoughts and feelings on the matter into the Force, and refused to dwell on the subject any longer. Her time as the Sith's captive was starting to affect her in ways she didn't like. It was one thing to sympathise with and understand a Sith, but it was another thing entirely to start thinking like one.

In her mind, Eldra repeated her mantra of indifference: she could be in worse situations, but she was still a slave. She hadn't suffered the fate that awaited most Twi'lek slave girls, but her freedom had still been taken from her.

It kept her in a state of calm; kept her from falling into the dark while also stopping her from throwing her life away by rebelling unnecessarily. Her time would come to escape. For now, she would stay in her gilded cage, refusing to give up her strength and spirit.

Eldra climbed to her feet and reached out her hand. Her lightsaber crossed the room, igniting in mid-air. She caught it and turned to Maul, falling naturally into a battle stance. She was becoming more and more of a fighter with each passing day, and growing further and further from the peacekeeper she'd been trained to become.

She wondered what kind of Jedi she would be if she ever escaped.

"I want to have another shot at destroying you today, if that's alright."

Maul grinned at her and leapt to his feet, his whole body shaking with excitement. He called his lightsaber to his hand and turned it on, before reaching out with the Force and dimming the lights. It gave them both more of a challenge.

"You can certainly try, Eldra Kaitis."