Ezra awoke to the sound of a tie fighter's engine. He sat up with a groan and held his pounding head in his hands. What happened? He looked around and saw the silhouetted figure sitting in the pilot's chair. Maul. Maul had stabbed Zeb and knocked Ezra unconscious in the alley.
"So you have awakened, Apprentice," the Zabrak said in his smooth voice. The same voice that had tricked Ezra into trusting him. The same voice that had convinced him that his way was better than Kanan's. The same voice that had used him to put the Holocron in the obelisk. The same voice that haunted his nightmares.
"No, not you!" he said, remembering his dreams. For weeks after they returned from Malachor, Ezra could barely sleep. Whenever he dreamt, he only ever saw Maul's tattooed face and glowing yellow eyes. He saw Maul blinding Kanan. He saw the death of the Seventh sister over and over again. He heard the scream of frustration that came from Maul as he killed her. He heard his voice echoing as each of his friends died by Maul's hands. "The next time you hesitate like that, it may cost you your life… or the lives of your friends." Now the source of his fears sat before him.
"Have no fear, apprentice, I shall not harm you."
"I'm not your apprentice," Ezra replied coldly. "What did you do to Zeb?"
The Lasat?" Maul asked, turning toward the boy. "I really do not know what happened to your friend. He was still alive last I saw. I assume he contacted your former master, but one can never tell."
"So he could still be alive?" Ezra asked hopefully. He breathed a sigh of relief.
"I only needed to delay your friends for a while, not kill them." Maul went silent, staring out the front window of the tie fighter, the blue lights of hyperspace casting his shadow onto the wall behind him.
"What do you want?" Ezra asked with a shaking voice.
"I can sense your fear, Ezra," Maul said. "There is no need to be worried."
"Drop the act," Ezra raised his voice. "Kanan told me what happened. You blinded him so you could get to me. You used me to get the power from the Sith temple!"
Maul stood and turned quickly to look at Ezra. "Yes. I blinded your master. I used you to get the holocron. I used you to activate the temple to get revenge on all of my enemies!" Maul scowled, clenching his fists in anger. Ezra slowly began to inch away from the Zabrak.
"The sith, the jedi, the empire. They are all my enemies. I was once a Sith warrior, apprenticed to the most powerful being in the galaxy! I was feared by all! But then my life was ruined by the jedi. By Obi-Wan Kenobi. He cut me in half and I was abandoned in a garbage heap on Naboo. I became a rabid animal, living only through the power of the dark side. My hatred and will to survive kept me alive until my brother found me. My mother helped me I regain my identity and I sought revenge on the Jedi who had forced me into a life of misery for twelve years!
"I killed the woman Obi-Wan Kenobi loved so that he would feel my pain my misery my anguish! But then my former master came, murdered my brother, and used me to find my mother. He then murdered my mother and left me to die." Maul turned back to the window and Ezra breathed slowly.
"I remembered a weapon that the ancient Sith had created and I knew that it would help me in my search for revenge. I went to Malachor and waited for another who could use the force to help me enter the temple. So long I waited. Then you came. You were destined to join me, Ezra! That is why you found me on Malachor!"
"I found you on Malachor because I fell down a hole!" Ezra argued. "It was just a-"
"Coincidence? Ezra, surely you have realized by now that there are no coincidences. There is only the Force." He turned back around and knelt next to the boy, staring into his eyes. Ezra shifted his gaze, trying to look anywhere but at the man who had caused so many problems.
"Do you still have the holocron?" Maul asked after a moment.
"Wh-what?" Ezra looked back into his eyes.
"You do, don't you?" Maul smiled "And you've managed to open it. I can feel the seeds of darkness within you. How does it feel? How does it feel to think like a sith?" Ezra looked away from the glowing yellow eyes.
He liked it.
He had been bottling up his emotions, refusing to let them turn into actions because it was not the Jedi way. A jedi never used emotions in the force. But Maul had shown him a different way on Malachor. He had used his anger at the Empire to lift the stones of the temple. He felt strong. He felt powerful.
The return from Malachor had been overwhelming. Kanan was blind. Ahsoka was gone. It was all Ezra's fault. He had trusted Maul, and because he trusted him, they stayed on Malachor for all the bad things to happen. All of his emotions bubbled up to the surface. All of his anger and grief came to the forefront, the perfect components for using the dark side. He used his anger and opened the Holocron.
"It feels good, doesn't it?" Maul asked. Ezra realized he was smiling. "It feels good to break your chains. I can teach you, Ezra. I can teach you to fully control your power through the dark side of the force."
"I don't need you to teach me anything!" Ezra yelled, closing his eyes. "I already have a master!"
"A master who can no longer see you, let alone teach you!"
"You're the one who blinded him!"
"When was the last time you trained with your master?" Ezra fell silent. They hadn't really trained together since they returned from Malachor. Every time that Kanan suggested the idea, Ezra declined, knowing it wouldn't be worth it. No matter how hard he tried, Ezra would never be able to bring himself to try to fight his mentor; not while he was blind.
"He does not deserve an apprentice as powerful as you! Your power is boiling inside you, ready to manifest itself. You need the knowledge of the dark side to truly express your potential! You can be great, Ezra."
"I don't care about being great!"
Maul's voice lowered. "Then what is it that you want from your training?"
"I just want to protect myself and my friends!"
"To do that, you need power-the power only the dark side can give." Ezra looked up at Maul. The power of the dark side can be used to protect? He remembered when he summoned the giant fyrnock on Anaxes. He had used the cold, dark side of the force to control the beast and saved Kanan. He had protected his master with the dark side when the light side was insufficient.
"You're right. I saved my master once, using the dark side."
"You see? I promise you, with the knowledge in the holocron and with the training I can provide, you can become powerful enough to save all those you care for and love."
Ezra thought for a moment, his eyes closed tight. The crew of the ghost were his only true family. Kanan, Hera, Sabine, Zeb, and even Chopper were the first people who cared about him and protected him. They came back for him when he thought no one would. If anything happened to them, if they were taken away like his parents were, he would never forgive himself; not when he could have done something to save them.
"Teach me," he said.