Darth Maul led her through the small ship to another room with another sliding door. It whooshed open, and Nata-lin couldn't help but be a little surprised at the contents of the room. She blinked, twice, looking around at the simple medical room. This was not where she'd thought that he was taking her. Nata-lin didn't know what she had been expecting- she just knew that this wasn't it.

He half-dragged her to an examination table in the centre of the room. Nata-lin didn't even see it coming when his grasp left her arm only to enclose around her waist. She sucked in a sharp breath as Darth Maul lifted her onto the table, and only let it out when his strong fingers released her, after he'd settled her in the place he wanted her.

Nata-lin's eyes followed him as he moved swiftly away toward some metallic drawers which he then proceeded to sift through. She found herself again surprised when he withdrew a roll of bandages. They were clearly meant for the wound he'd made in her back; but, personally, she hadn't thought it was that bad.

It didn't feel that bad. She'd had worse anyway and not had it bandaged before. Then again, before wasn't exactly the best model that she could have wanted to measure this situation on. But if Darth Maul felt like bandaging the wound he'd made, who was she to complain? At least she knew she wasn't likely to die from an infected wound. Fab, she thought, frowning to herself. I'm already thinking of being here that long...

She hadn't seen the other thing Maul had pulled out of the drawer along with the bandage as he'd quite skilfully kept it hidden from her view. It wasn't until the last moment of her eyes following his movements that she saw what he was lifting up her shirt to put against her skin.

"Hey, wait- stop- what the- OW."

Nata-lin scowled at the Sith Lord as he pulled the small object away from her. The sharp stab she'd felt in her back confirmed to her that it was some sort of needle. She just couldn't figure out why he was jabbing one into her skin.

"Why did you just do that? Scratch that, what did you just do?"

Darth Maul gave her a unimpressed glance. He was starting to become very irritated by her constant enquiring and annoying... well, voice even. The amount she was questioning him was definitely grating on him. But he answered her anyway. It wouldn't do to have her suspecting things.

"It will clean the wound from the inside."

He didn't mention the fact that he'd also inserted his own tracking device into her; just as a measure of insurance. The seer hadn't realised that the Jedi had planted one on her, so Maul was relatively certain that the human wouldn't figure out what he had just done either.

"Oh, right..."

"Lift your arms," Maul commanded.

Nata-lin did so, noting the tone of his voice. She was pretty sure that he'd have just lifted her arms up anyway if she hadn't complied. The Sith Lord held her shirt up and swiftly began wrapping the bandage around her, unravelling it from its roll. When he felt it had sufficiently covered the wound, he tied a knot, securing it there.

"Thanks... I guess," Nata-lin murmured.

Darth Maul circled around the table, only stopping when he was directly in front of her. Then he simply stared at her, his sharp eyes focussed intently on her. It was starting to make her feel slightly uncomfortable; and she pulled her arms down awkwardly, feeling her shirt fall with them. He nodded once to her, the gesture sharp and even more unsettling.

"So... what am I supposed to call you?" she asked, searching for a way to end the prolonged silence.

He stared at her for a moment. Again with the questions, he thought, wondering at why she thought it so necessary to have her wonderings consistently answered for her.

"I mean, I know your name, but... Do I just call you Darth Maul, or what?"

"Master."

"What?" she frowned, not quite sure that she'd correctly caught what he'd said.

"Master," he repeated.

"That is what you will call me."

Nata-lin blinked at him and said, "Master? That's being a bit presumptuous, isn't it?"

He glowered at her with those piercing eyes that demanded to be taken seriously.

"We are not Jedi. We are Sith; and we command respect. You will show it."

She blinked again. Great, he is going to be one of those, she thought, dreading what was to come. Nata-lin didn't want to go back to being a slave to whoever tried to own her. She didn't want to be owned. It wasn't right. She was supposed to be free. And she wasn't supposed to have to call anyone 'Master'. Not again.

Nata-lin couldn't take her eyes off of the Sith Lord from then on. He was pacing again, like the room and the tiny ship were too small for him. Like he was a predator trapped in a cage. And he was looking at her too- staring. It was more than unnerving to be locked in a silent staring competition like that and they'd spent so long in silence that Nata-lin jumped at the sound of his voice.

"You are immune to mind tricks?" he said.

Her hand flew up to her chest in shock, but she managed to calm herself quickly. He hadn't made a move toward her after all, though she'd half been expecting it. Nata-lin didn't think that it really sounded like a question but she nodded anyway- even though that might not have been entirely truthful.

She was mostly immune to Jedi mind tricks; there were a few, and she didn't know why, that worked upon her. It wasn't even like they were the same ones either; just sometimes, she couldn't resist as she normally would. She'd never really understood it.

"You are wrong."

Nata-lin blinked.

"I'm what?"

"You are wrong," he repeated.

"I heard you; but how would you know that?"

"Aside from the fact that you are a very obvious liar; why else do you think that you would have so stupidly left the Jedi Temple?"

"That was- that was your doing?" she asked, not quite believing what he was saying.

He gave a single nod in reply to which she could only frown at.

"But... but how? I don't underst-"

Darth Maul cut in to her sentence, interrupting before she could finish, "If I revealed that then you might learn how to better control yourself."

Nata-lin stared at him, open-mouthed. It had been him that had brought her out of the temple- not her own impulsive actions. And she now knew that it was because he knew a way around the security blanket that she'd always held close in regards to the Jedi. This was bad news, she knew; but a small part of her couldn't help but feel better that it was not entirely her fault that Borkat was killed.

"If you could make me leave then why didn't you take me earlier then?" Nata-lin asked.

"I could have taken you at any time. I wanted to judge the Jedi as your carer; he was doing well until he let you slip through his fingers so easily. I was waiting for him to come for you. I was waiting to teach him his mistake for being such a poor guardian of you, little seer."

"He wasn't... He wasn't a poor guardian. It was me..." she replied mumbling, her eyes now trained on the floor.

Maul shook his head.

"You told the Jedi council about me and yet the only protection they gave you was that poorly-trained human," he virtually sneered.

"He was not poorly-trained! He was a good man," Nata-lin it back.

"That died quickly because of his poor training."

Her eyes flashed at him as she sat, still on the examination table, stewing in silence.

"It's interesting that they would underestimate us so," Maul said quietly.

He didn't even appear to be talking to her; just making a note to himself. But Nata-lin was spending her energy focussing on the fact that he'd just said 'us'. In fact, when she thought about it, Darth Maul had also said it when she'd revealed that the Jedi council knew about him.

She stayed frozen in place, her fingers curling over the rim of the table. It was the first time that realised there was definitively more than one Sith in the galaxy. She just hoped that it was as Yoda had said, a master and an apprentice. And that there weren't any more lurking beyond where even her visions could reach. One was bad enough, two she would have to handle, but any more?

She tried to repress a shudder at the thought, though she knew that Darth Maul wouldn't miss the tiny movement. All she saw was the corner of his lips turn upward a little as his eyes- those beautiful, striking, dangerous eyes- trailed over her.

"I can feel your fear," he said.

And that only made her feel all the worse.

It wasn't long after that that the Sith Lord took her back to that small room he'd put her in before, still revelling, it seemed, in her fear. She glanced down at the floor, quickly noticing that the little metallic tracker that he'd removed from under her skin was gone, though she didn't know how. Darth Maul had been with her the entire time. Unless there's someone else on the ship...

She didn't really dwell on the thought. What would it really matter if there was someone else on the ship? She was still stuck. Darth Maul left swiftly, the door swooshing closed behind him. Nata-lin blinked, a thought hitting her. Was she really as stuck as she thought?

Nata-lin went over to the door, trying her best to get it open; but also knowing it was pointless. After her first few attempts, she gave up and went to sit down on the protruding ledge. A grimace creased her features as she realised the futility of trying to escape. Just now, at least.

She supposed, as she had before, that this was supposed to be her cell. Looking around the room for the second time that day, she saw nothing new. And she hated the four walls more so than she had before. White with a metallic sheen. Nata-lin scowled at them as if it would make a difference. No. She was still locked in here until her captor let her out.

Frowning even more deeply, she lay down on the ledge, swinging her legs up onto it. Why did I ever leave the temple? she thought, closing her eyes and praying for a sleep that she knew wasn't likely to come. Stupid freaking mind tricks... She didn't know how long she'd been there, restlessly trying to forget her day and the awfulness that came with it. But she knew that it had to be quite some time.

In the end, Nata-lin went back to trying her old fallback; her faithful standby- lying under the bed- or ledge in this case. It was a habit that she'd developed for purely safety conscious purposes. One that had proved useful in the past. And one that proved its worth yet again when it led her to a dreamless, yet agitated, slumber.

Hours after he left her there, Darth Maul returned to collect Nata-lin. He had not expected to find her asleep. Perhaps hiding at the side of the door, ready to rush at him in an attempt to attack him and escape; but sleeping? And under the ledge instead of on top of it?

Nata-lin did not wake when the door closed behind the Sith Lord, so he continued to stare at her, curious as to the human seer's curious position. Why she was on the floor, he had no idea. She was a strange being. But she would be one of great use to him and his master.

She stirred, almost seeming to unconsciously sense that she was being stared at in her sleep. A hand came up to rub at her eyes, which soon opened blearily. It appeared to take Nata-lin some time to realise where she was- and who was with her, but as soon as she did, she pushed herself onto her hands and knees quickly. Too quickly though, because she jarred her head against the ledge she had chosen to sleep under instead of on top of.

"Ow," she said, wincing in pain at her self-induced injury.

Nata-lin crawled out from under the ledge and stood up in front of him awkwardly. Her hair had become strange, Maul noticed, though she didn't seem to. It was large and somehow puffed out, knotting into itself in places. Perhaps this was how it normally looked and he'd taken her on a day she'd done something to it. She was strange. But she soon caught sight of where his eyes went and scowled at him.

"Hey! Not everyone has perfect hair all the time, you know? Well, you wouldn't because you don't have hair, but-"

He cleared his throat, interrupting her rant as she dug herself a hole to be buried in. A figurative one, this time.

"What?" she asked, staring at him after he said nothing following his strategic cough.

"Come," he ordered her, turning to leave.

Again with the 'come' and then nothing? Nata-lin thought, seeing no other option than to follow him out of the room. As she traipsed after the Sith Lord, wondering where he would lead her to next, she couldn't help but think that at least she'd be away from those four walls.