I'm pretty glad with this chapter. It did have to go through a little editing though. On a side note: Do you know how hard it is to write Kanan now that he's blind? I'm realitively new to the whole seeing through the Force mechanic, but I know it doesn't entirely work the same way as actually having eyes (I like to think of it like how Toph "sees" in Avatar). It's just tricky not to use things like "Kanan saw" or "Kanan looked at" and things like that.
"What do you mean you have to stay?" Kanan questioned, flabbergasted by Ezra's request.
"I can't go." Ezra replied, his voice shaking. "I will never be safe going back with you. I'll be constantly hunted. It won't stop until I have been grabbed and dragged back, and you guys could wind up dead because of it. So I have to stay. No matter how much I hate it, no matter how scared I am."
Ezra's whole body started to shake in fear. His arms wrapped themselves around his sides. Ezra jumped as two hands took a hold of his shoulders. A twisted laugh vibrated behind Ezra and he could feel it.
"The child has spoken." Maul chimmed in. "And might I say, it is quite poetic."
Ezra's fear seemed to intensify. Not only could Kanan sense it, but Maul also took note of it, knowing what Ezra was freaking out about. Ezra made another slight jump as the Zabrak patted his head.
"Don't worry Ezra. I'm not going to punish you." Maul comforted, ruffling Ezra's hair, which resulted in Ezra to shiver in discomfort. "This was all a test. I wanted to see if you could do it. The results of this test proved that you weren't quite ready yet."
Kanan was disturbed by the scene in front of him, as his anger escalated. The fear emanating off of Ezra was potent, as the teen stood frozen in the Zabrak's grip.
"Fear is a powerful thing master Jedi, which is why I always side with it." Maul stated. "I believe a certain little green gremlin once said fear was the path to the dark side. And so it has. It gracefully placed itself in front of Ezra. His fear of me is stronger than his devotion and love for you."
Kanan could no longer contain himself, his anger exploding, as he instantly and unexpectedly used the Force to push Maul away from Ezra. Not only that, but Kanan used the force to get a grip of Maul's neck. Ezra was shocked by the scene in front of him, and what Kanan had just done. He sprinted over to Kanan, his expression showing concern and terror.
"What are you doing?" Ezra gasped.
"What does it look like?" Kanan bitterly replied. "Finishing the job."
"Well stop."
"Why should I?"
"This is not like you. You would never be this quick to act, nor would you ever be this quick to kill someone."
Kanan didn't respond, showing no sign that he even acknowledged Ezra's statement, as he held his grip on the Zabrak's neck.
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't." Kanan ordered.
"Sabine." Ezra hastily replied. "I know she tagged along, and I know there is no way that she'd want you to do this."
"Sabine is a Mandalorian, Ezra. Even if she didn't want me to, this isn't out of the ordinary for her people. So she can handle it."
Ezra was puzzled to say the least at Kanan's statement. Sure she was a Mandaorian, but she as still human and had some common sense. Ezra scrambled for another reason for Kanan to stop, having almost no luck for a few moments.
"Me." Ezra whispered.
"Ezra! I am doing this for you. This will free you from him."
The boy flinched at Kanan yelling at him.
"You would never be able to face me Kanan!" Ezra yelled back, startling Kanan. "You may find a way to justify killing him at the end of the day, but at what cost? The moment this whole situation settles, you would instantly feel regret. You would have to come to terms with what you've done, or better yet, what you've done in front of me. The fact that you lost control and killed someone right in front of me, who mind you, has already been emotionally compromised. I killed a man, who I didn't even know, and I was devastated. So can you imagine what I'll experience if you do this?"
Kanan was surprised by Ezra's bold outburst, all the while still holding the Zabrak subconsciously. He didn't expect Ezra to be so personal with his reasoning.
"If you do this, I'll lose you. You will never be able to face me, or for that matter get anywhere near me. You would be living with the guilt of knowing that you killed Maul when my barriers were down, traumatizing me even more, and because of that, I'll more than likely never see you again. I'll come with you, but you need to let him go."
Kanan seemed to hold his ground, not showing a sign of letting up. All Ezra could do was stare at his mentor, hoping that his words meant something and waited for a response.
A sigh of relief escaped Ezra as Kanan let go of the Dathomirian, who didn't say a word as he caught his breath.
"Consider yourself lucky that my padawan knows me as well as he does." Kanan coldly stated. "Next time you won't be so lucky."
Kanan threw his arm around Ezra's shoulders and guided Ezra towards the Phantom. Maul watched on in silence, processing what had just occurred. 'I wasn't expecting that from you Master Jedi.' Maul stated. 'But you got your way. You got Ezra back, so rejoice. Breaking my hold on him was the easy part. Keeping him that way is a completely different story. He'll be back eventually."
I didn't make Maul too creepy did I? I set up the scene where he approaches Ezra with the idea of sparking that slight bit of fear in Ezra. Also, I always planned to keep him alive, even before the season 3 trailer or anything. I'm just saying that because he will be in season 3, but again none of the season 3 stuff affects this fic. The reason I didn't kill him off was because before any of the season 3 news, no one really knew what role he would play, so I couldn't kill him off since I didn't know what kind of role he would be playing.