Even with Boba making a few hyperspace jumps they were able to keep track of him until he landed on the planet Dathomir. "I have a bad feeling about this." Caleb muttered under his breath, causing Ezra to give him a look before asking "What is it Kanan?" "Dathomir is and was the home planet of the Night Sisters, Ventress, Maul and his brother Savage. Why would Boba come here?" Hera gave the two Jedi a look before turning to face the view outside the cockpit as she said "I'm not sure I want to know that answer."
"Didn't Sabine say that there is a smaller ship attached to this one?" Ezra asked. Hera nodded before Ezra continued "Maybe Kanan and I could go down there and look for clues as to why he is here in that, that way you aren't in danger." Hera replied "You're welcome to use the Phantom if you want to, but it doesn't have the ability to go into hyperspace on its own, you'll need to dock back with us before you can leave."
Caleb nodded and said "Sounds like a plan, let's go Dev." Ezra led the way to the Phantom and climbed up into the small, those still rather roomy ship. Both he and Caleb were so busy quickly discovering what the controls did, that they didn't notice they had a stowaway, so well did she hide herself.
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As they made their way to the surface, Ezra asked "Do you think it's Ventress that is behind this, Caleb? I heard she became a bounty hunter, so maybe she is doing this to ruin Boba?" "I don't think so Ezra, Ventress did try to help Ahsoka when she was falsely accused, which leads me to think she really isn't as bad as most make her out to be, though I haven't personally met her so I can't say for sure." Caleb responded.
"So who does that leave? Weren't all the Night Sisters killed?" the ten year old asked his Master. "We are pretty sure they were, though a few may have been away or got safely hidden away and thus survived. I also wouldn't put it past Maul to be the one behind it, after all, we have thought him dead before." Ezra spared his Master a glance before saying softly, "I guess we will find out soon enough.
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Caleb settled the small craft nearby Boba's, though he hid it so it wouldn't be noticed, at least he hoped he did. They exited together and followed the bounty hunter's trail, he hadn't bothered to hide where he was going. They were soon were close enough to hear him muttering under his breath, so they communicated using their own special sign language only. Finally the bounty hunter stopped and loudly yelled, "I know you're here, show yourself!"
For a moment, Ezra and Caleb thought he meant them, but suddenly a dark, chilling laugh sounded from the shadows of nearby trees. "Ah the bounty hunter Boba Fett, I thought I might see you soon." The voice said, the owner of it still hidden from sight. "Of course I would come here, what did you expect when you stole my name and used it the way you did?" Boba, having removed his helmet, glared in the direction of the voice, "And come out of the shadows, I know it is you Maul."
Caleb and Ezra both barely kept from gasping as, sure enough, Darth Maul appeared, seeming to melt from the shadows. All Ezra could think was "The Bridgers were right to worry." Caleb's mind was racing. There was no way Ezra was ready to take on Maul, Caleb wasn't sure he himself was able to. They had to get out of there while they could, he decided. He was about to sign to Ezra to get ready to head out quietly, when Ezra signed, "We have to help him." Caleb turned his attention back to the other two beings in the area and sighed, Boba was getting far to close to Maul and there was no way that Maul was going to let him leave.
Boba realized this himself just seconds later when Maul ignited his blade and was about to impale him when Ezra and Caleb jumped forward with their own ignited blades to block his just in time. "Go!" Caleb yelled to Boba, who needed no further prompting to turn and rush back towards his ship. "Ah, Jedi coming to call on me, I am honored." Maul said, his eyes flickering with false flattery.
From there it was blurs of blue, green and red, as the three twirled and slashed with their blades in an intricate, almost dance like, motion. Caleb knew how dangerous Maul was, knew that this duel might end with both him and his Padawan injured or even dead, but it was their duty to protect those who couldn't protect themselves. Still, they had definitely given Boba enough time to leave, in fact he was sure he saw his ship just out of the corner of his eye, leaving the planet in it's dust. That was their cue.
"Time to go Ezra." Caleb shouted to his Padawan, just as he heard him cry out in pain. Maul had jumped back as Caleb had been slightly distracted by Boba's ship and thrown his lightsaber. Ezra had deflected it, but not quite successfully. Two angry looking streaks on his left cheek were where once smooth skin had been. He had to get his Padawan out of their before Maul's lightsaber came any closer. Using the Force, he pushed Maul, who had become distracted by his hit on the Padawan, backwards.
Grabbing Ezra, he pulled him back in the direction they had come. The cuts weren't that big, but the pain from them was making it hard for Ezra to focus, yet somehow he kept from tripping as they made their way to the Phantom. "I wish we had left the ship running." Caleb muttered to himself as he heard Maul crashing in the forest behind them, his metallic legs creaking with each movement.
As they reached where they had hid the Phantom, they were surprised to find it running and Sabine standing in the doorway yelling "Come on!" before she disappeared back inside to be ready at the controls. No sooner had they entered then she started lifting off. Ezra and Caleb turned around and saw Maul jump for their ship, just barely missing it as Sabine put all the speed she could into getting them out of there.
Once they felt safe, Ezra and Caleb made their way forward where Caleb asked the question on both of their minds, "How did you get here?" "I stowed away when you headed down. I knew Hera would be waiting for you and I thought you might need help down here. I considered following you, but I'm still working on being stealthy so I thought you might need a fast exit and when Boba Fett turned up here fast and you didn't, I figured I better get this crate ready to fly out of here." She replied, before continuing "Now I have a question, you said your names were Kanan and Dev, so how come you called each other Caleb and Ezra?"
Ezra and Caleb couldn't believe that not only had they not noticed her get on the ship or that they hadn't seen her when they exited, but that they had slipped up and called each other by their real names. Yes they thought they were in the clear but they knew better than that, and this was proof why you should always remain in the mindset of being on a mission. Caleb sighed and said "We'll explain when we are back on the Ghost and safely in hyperspace." "And once I get a bacta patch on this." Ezra added, pointing towards his cheek. Sabine's eyes widened at the sight of the cuts on Ezra's cheek. She faced the cockpit window and set about getting to the Ghost fast, not only for Ezra's sake, but so her burning curiosity could be satisfied.
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Hera, after catching a glimpse of Ezra's face had immediately dragged him off to the med bay, leaving Sabine, Chopper and Zeb to get them into hyperspace and away from this planet. Once both of those tasks were taken care of, all of them gathered around the table as Caleb and Ezra told them who they really were. "We are Jedi. We were on a mission to protect the Queen of Naboo, as she had received threats, threats that supposedly came from Boba." Caleb started.
"Since neither of us are as well-known as say Obi-Wan or Anakin, we often use fake last names to keep people from connecting the dots and therefore we often get a lot of the missions that require someone undercover. This time, due to the sensitivity of it all, we made double sure no one might recognize us by our names by changing both our first and last name." Ezra cut in.
"As it turns out, Boba wasn't really behind the threats, but rather Darth Maul, whom he went to have it out with for using his name. We stepped in, which is where Ezra got the cuts from, and its only because Sabine snuck aboard that we made it out of there honestly. He was too close behind us and it would have taken us just seconds to long to get airborne." Caleb finished.
"So what are your real names if you are Kanan Jarrus or Dev Morgan?" Zeb asked. "I'm Caleb Dume." Caleb answered. "And I'm Ezra. No last name, nobody knows where I came from." He joked, though Caleb could sense how much that still hurt his young Padawan. Yes he wouldn't have had any contact with his family once he joined the Order, but to have just been left with no last name really tore at him.
To keep the mood light, Caleb put his hands behind his head and said "Well, now that you know our secret we'll just have to hire you to cart us from place to place when it doesn't require special ships." "As long as you pay, we'll take you anywhere." Hera answered back, her smile for both of them kind and caring. "Well then it's settled." Caleb grinned. For the rest of the flight to Coruscant they all joked and talked with each other like they were old friends.
I just had to say, that until I was halfway through writing this chapter I hadn't given it much thought that it was Caleb/Kanan and Ezra finding Maul, haha. Then I thought, well this is as good a time as any for Ezra to get his scars ;)