Chapter 12

A/N: Originally, this chapter was going to be a rewrite of the Season 3 episode entitled "An Inside Man", or Episode 10, but with Sabine filling Ezra's role on the mission. However, in the end the chapter was basically just the exact same thing as the original episode, so we're just gonna move on, real smooth-like, and get to the next part of the story. Enjoy!

Two months since Ezra left Atollon…

Ezra POV

The past couple months had been busy. Ezra had begun to anticipate an impending war with the Empire, so he'd spent every waking moment since coming home on working.

During the day, he helped his clan, putting extra emphasis on helping to increase their arsenals, maximize their firepower, and shore up their defenses.

In his free time, he prepared himself for a fight, working especially hard on his close-quarters and bladed combat, the areas where he was most lacking. His use of ranged weapons had been exceptional since his childhood, even from up close, to compensate for his inability to use the Force under any circumstances, but he had vulnerabilities when it came to fighting without those ranged weapons. Vulnerabilities that he intended to correct.

For most of the nighttime, Ezra would practice his use of the Force. Before each practice, he would meditate for an hour to trap his Force presence inside his own room, not wanting to damage anything outside it or to risk the Empire's Inquisitors sensing his presence.

Once he was sure that he was contained, he would do little practices, usually lifting various objects in his room, most commonly his helmet. Once a week, however, he gave himself a little challenge, such as removing everything from his belt and reorganizing it all into their individual pockets with only the Force.

Tonight, he had removed every piece of his armor and used the Force to reattach it to his bodysuit. It hadn't been easy. Using the Force for prolonged periods of time could be incredibly tiring, and right now Ezra felt exhausted as he collapsed on his bed after taking a shower to clean himself of his sweat.

Almost immediately after he shut his eyes, he was pulled into the realm of dreams, but the dream he had tonight was unlike anything he'd seen before. He saw flashing images pass over his view, and only snippets of sentences reached his ears.

He saw Kanan, holding his lightsaber to his side as he slowly approached Ezra with a glare on his face, his mask off and his eyes glowing an eerie green. Like it was speaking to him from the end of a long tunnel, he heard an unfamiliar voice say, "Ah, yes. You'll do nicely." He looked up at… a horrible, grotesque picture of a face he'd only seen in pictures, a woman he barely even remembered, wearing fine robes but with a line of blood drawn over her neck and eyes. Finally, he saw a man's face, veiled in shadow, turn to look at him, yellow eyes glowing in the darkness like they belonged to a demon, an image which was completed by a number of small horns sticking out on top of the man's head. His gaze made Ezra feel uneasy, even in a dream, and the shadowy man smiled at him without kindness or humor, simply a kind of sadistic delight. He raised one hand, the fingers slightly clenched together, and suddenly Sabine appeared from the fog of the dream, floating in the air and clutching at her throat desperately, yet not making a sound.

Ezra shot up in bed and reached out a hand to defend himself. Instantly, one of his pistols jumped to his hands and he pulled the trigger, blasting a hole in his wall right where he'd been sure that the demon had been a moment before, his sinister chuckle ringing in Ezra's ears.

He lowered his pistol after a moment, but he didn't relax his guard. Whatever he'd just seen was like no dream he'd ever experienced before. Adding that to the sheer number of disturbing images he'd seen in the dream, Ezra was sure that whatever it meant couldn't be good.

Suddenly, the door to his room opened, the lights came on, and his mother rushed in, both of her pistols drawn and wearing her helmet on her head, yet only her pajamas beneath her head. If she'd neglected to don the rest of her armor, Ezra knew that she'd come here in a hurry.

She quickly scanned the room with her pistols, but saw nothing and turned to Ezra. "I heard a blast," she explained. "What happened?"

Ezra sat up and responded, "It was me. Nightmare. Bad one."

Bo hesitantly holstered her pistols, then removed her helmet and came to sit by Ezra. "What was it?" Bo asked in concern.

Ezra put a hand to his head as he tried to remember the details. "Whatever it was, it felt so real. Kanan, the Jedi I mentioned a couple months ago, was there. He seemed a bit upset with me, and his eyes were glowing. Sabine… Wren was also there."

Next to him, his mother pursed her lips with clear disapproval. Since Ezra had come home, he had talked about Sabine more than anything else when asked what the past seven years had been like for him, but what did they expect? It had been his job to think about Sabine Wren at all hours of every single day for the entire time that he was gone. Perhaps his mother simply didn't understand how he had eventually become friends with her after being her enemy for so long. To be honest, Ezra still didn't entirely get that one himself.

Abruptly remembering the most crucial detail of the dream, Ezra added, "And… Maul. Maul was there."

He saw Bo tense up at the mention of the Zabrak. Once the ruler of all Mandalore, Maul was perhaps his mother's biggest frustration. He had been her enemy during the Siege of Mandalore, in which he had led an army of Mandalorians against his mother's forces in a massive civil war. Only the assistance of the Republic Clone Army and the Jedi Ahsoka Tano had helped her to prevail against him to retake the planet, but he hadn't been killed by the Republic or the Jedi, only captured.

They hadn't seen him since, but his mother refused to admit that Maul had died until it was confirmed. Now, Ezra was confirming her worst fear instead. And if half of what Bo had told her son about him was true, Maul's significance to Ezra was even greater than to her.

"Where was he?" Bo asked.

"I… have no idea," Ezra admitted. "It could've been anywhere."

Bo nodded her head, looking down in thought, and stayed silent for another moment.

The image of Sabine being harmed by Maul floated back to the forefront of Ezra's mind, and he said, "I have to go. I need to help them."

His mother looked back at him warningly. "Ezra, do not imagine that you can fight Maul, if your dream was even anything more than just that, a dream. Maul is too powerful for any single warrior to defeat."

Ezra glared back at her and argued, "You told me that Ahsoka did. And so did… you know. Him. He did it several times."

Bo shook her head. "That was different. They were Jedi. We're just Mandalorians, and I've fought Maul one on one before myself, if you could even call it a fight. He didn't even need to try to defeat me."

Ezra put a hand on her shoulder and told her, "All the same, I need to go warn Sab… the rebels. If Maul's coming for them, they need to be ready. And if it becomes a fight… Well, I'm not a Jedi, but I'm not just your average Mandalorian either."

Bo lowered her head and sighed out with worry. "If you must go, I cannot go with you. I am busy here, and I would prefer to wait for Maul to come to us, but if you must go, you must promise to return. You are the greatest hunter in our clan, but I fear that that will not be enough for you to fight Maul."

Ezra stood and pulled her up with him before he touched his forehead to hers. "I will return, mother. Maul has no power that could keep me from coming home once again." He stayed there for a few more seconds, then grabbed his armor case and carried it out of the room.

He left the castle, careful not to disturb anyone else in their sleep, and boarded the Absolution before taking off, setting his course for Atollon.

Sabine POV

At the Rebel base on Atollon, Sabine and the rest of the Ghost crew examined a map for one of their planned targets, a strike on an Imperial weapons factory on the planet of Lothal.

Hera was saying, "Before we attack the factory, I want to do a full recon. There's no need for a full squadron, a small team should be able to handle it. Sabine and Zeb, I'm going to send the two of you in there to first scout out the Empire's orbital defenses… Sabine, would you care to join the briefing?"

Hera had paused when she'd noticed Sabine's gaze starting to wander, her mind getting distracted by the thought of how she could recreate a certain shade of bright blue that she loved to use in a painting. Upon getting called out by Hera, Sabine quickly snapped herself out of it. "Right, sorry. You were saying something about… Puffer pigs?" she said, taking a wild guess.

Hera rolled her eyes and Zeb scowled at her. "No, she was talking about weapons. Significantly more dangerous ones than a puffer pig. Since when do you get distracted while talking about weapons?"

Sabine shook her head and said, "I'm sorry! I just have a lot on my mind."

"Well, clear it up, because we have a job to do here, and there's no do-overs," Rex told her.

Sabine nodded her head in agreement and tried to pay attention to the briefing, but suddenly Kanan's head perked up and he looked around like he was hearing someone calling his name from far away.

"What now?" Hera asked irritably, annoyed that her planning was getting sidetracked by something else.

Kanan held up a hand for silence, and stood frozen for a moment like he was listening. Everyone remained still while they waited, trusting the Jedi's instincts. After some time, Kanan turned back to them and said, "We have a visitor."

Shortly after he said that, there was the distant sound of a ship exiting hyperspace, and then a familiar Kom'rk fighter flew down through the clouds towards their base.

Sabine beamed at the sight and said, "Ezra!" She hadn't seen her friend in months, but she had no doubt that the approaching ship was the Absolution.

Commander Sato turned to frown at Hera. "The Mandalorian? I thought we were done with him."

Hera sighed and shook her head in response. "Clearly, that's not the case. I just hope he isn't here to ask for help. We have our hands full as it is."

Kanan chuckled as he saw Sabine run towards the ship's designated landing zone, just outside the base perimeter, and he calmly strolled after her, saying, "If he is, have fun convincing Sabine that we can't give him anything."

Shortly later, Sabine arrived at the ship and watched as the ramp lowered, revealing Ezra Kryze as he walked down it. Sabine was pleasantly surprised to find him still wearing his armor with her paint job done on it. Smirking, she approached him and gestured with her head at his armor, asking, "What, couldn't find a way to clean that paint off?"

"No, it sticks like nothing I've ever seen," Ezra responded jokingly as he walked off the ramp to stand in front of her.

As Sabine chuckled, Kanan arrived and greeted, "Ezra! We weren't expecting you, but it's good to see you."

Ezra removed his helmet, placing it under his arm, and responded, "Unfortunately, I'm not just here to visit. I think you guys might be in danger, and I came to warn you."

Kanan crossed his arms over his chest and asked, "What's the threat?"

"So, long story short, last night I had a dream," Ezra quickly explained. "But, like, a weird dream, and my mother told me about how Force-wielders have mind-sorcery, so we're a little concerned that maybe the dream is… something more. Like a vision of some sort."

Kanan stroked his beard and said, "Some Jedi were known to receive premonitions, warnings of future possibilities. Alright, Ezra, we're listening, but remember that these visions aren't always reliable."

Ezra took a deep breath and said, "So, Sabine will know this one, but you probably won't. The most disturbing detail of the dream was that I saw this guy named Maul. He was a big deal on Mandalore-"

"I know Maul," Kanan cut him off, bitterness in his voice.

Ezra was surprised. "Wait, you know him? How do you…"

Kanan reached up and removed his mask, pointing at the scar across his eyes. "Not even a year ago, I wasn't blind. Then I met Maul."

Ezra processed this statement and quietly said, "I… I'm sorry, Kanan. I didn't know."

Kanan sighed and put his mask back on. "It's okay," he said. "I just wanted you to know that we have some experience with Maul. Last we saw him was on the planet Malachor, where he blinded me and I threw him off a hundred-foot-tall pyramid. I should've known that he wouldn't have died from that."

Ezra blinked in surprise and some admiration and started to say, "So you defeated him right after…" He shook his head and said, "Nevermind. The point is, I saw Maul, and I also saw both of you, clearly in danger of some sort, so I came here to warn you guys."

Just then, they heard a voice from above them say, "Really? Then I'm afraid that you came for nothing."

They all looked up in sync to see, to their shock, Maul himself standing above them on top of Ezra's ship.

In an instant, Kanan had drawn and ignited his lightsaber and both Sabine and Ezra directed their pistols at the former Sith Lord. However, Maul just waved his hand, and Sabine and Ezra's weapons were pulled from their hands, leaving only Kanan holding a weapon, and smiled at them as he taunted, "You young Mandalorians need to learn to respect your master."

Ezra reacted quickly, firing a grappling line at Maul's legs, but the Zabrak simply waved his hand and pushed it away from himself. Retracting the line, Ezra instead raised his other vambrace and fired a jet of flame towards the Sith, who jumped down from the ship to avoid it and landed with a clang on his metal legs.

Then, to Sabine's surprise, one of Ezra's pistols flew back to his hand before he directed it at Maul's head and fired. The blast singed one of Maul's horns as he barely managed to dodge the unexpected blast, then he stretched out a hand and raised Ezra into the air with the Force. "A Force-sensitive Mandalorian," Maul exclaimed in awe as Ezra clutched at his throat, desperately trying to draw air.

Kanan directed his lightsaber blade at Maul and ordered, "Maul! Release him!"

To their whole group's shock, Maul immediately obeyed, dropping Ezra back to the ground. Sabine quickly ran over to him and helped him to his feet.

Maul then turned to face Kanan and said, "Luckily for you, Master Jedi, I am not here for a fight. I am here because I require your assistance."

Keeping his lightsaber between himself and Maul, Kanan argued, "Yeah, I don't think so. Last time I tried to work with you, I lost my sight. I'm sure that whatever you have in mind this time would leave me even worse off."

Maul looked over to Ezra, who was still massaging his throat, and smiled. "Well, then perhaps I could use the assistance of your new apprentice here instead."

"I'm no one's apprentice, horn-head," Ezra spat at him, his gaze filled with loathing. As he spoke, he surged forward, clearly intent on attacking Maul physically, but Sabine quickly pressed against his chestplate, keeping him back before he got himself hurt.

Maul, completely unfazed by Ezra's insult, said, "Really? This Jedi hasn't scooped you up yet? Very well, then you can be my apprentice. As your ruler, I command you to accompany me."

With that, Maul turned to leave, his hands clasped behind his back, but Kanan stepped forward angrily and said, "Ezra's not going anywhere with you! None of us are!"

Maul turned back around and responded, "Oh? Then perhaps I should simply use this." He raised a small trigger device in his hand as he ended his sentence.

"What's that supposed to be?" Sabine asked forcefully.

Maul looked down at it and answered, "This, my dear, is a homing beacon that will broadcast the location of this base to the Empire, destroying your great secret with the mere push of a button."

At this, Sabine and Kanan looked at each other with worry. Unless Maul was bluffing, which they doubted, they couldn't afford for him to press that button. They were in the middle of planning a big operation right now, and they couldn't afford to need to relocate, especially with how difficult it had been for them to find this base.

Suddenly, Ezra stepped forward and said, "I'll do it."

Sabine looked at him in shock, and Kanan exclaimed, "No, Ezra! You don't know how dangerous this guy is! You can't trust him!"

"I know better than you, Kanan," Ezra responded cryptically. "And I don't trust him. But if me helping him with his problem keeps your base's location safe, I have to do what I can."

Maul grinned and told Kanan, "There, you see, Master Jedi? Some people can be reasonable. Now, if you would, I shall also require your Jedi holocron, as you refused to help me acquire the Sith one from Malachor."

Sabine looked at Kanan questioningly, hoping that he would step in and do something to keep Ezra from going with Maul, but instead Kanan simply deactivated his lightsaber and clenched his teeth as he said, "Fine."

He began to walk away, heading towards the Ghost, and Sabine looked at Ezra for a moment before she followed after the Jedi.

She caught up to him in his quarters aboard the ship, and angrily exclaimed, "Really, Kanan? You're just giving in to Maul's demands? When Ezra's life could be at stake?"

Kanan grabbed his holocron, a small cube that stored information on it, from a hidden compartment under his bed and held it up. He then held it in his hand, his palm open to lay flat, and the holocron began to float. The edges floated off of it, opening to reveal a bright blue light shining within, and Kanan used his other hand to grab a small device from his belt before he inserted it into the open cube, which then closed before Kanan grabbed it from the air.

"I'm not giving in," Kanan reassured Sabine. "I don't trust Maul, but we won't be able to stop him from leaving here with Ezra, not while he has that beacon here. So instead, I'm going to give him what he wants, and then with this tracker I've just put inside the holocron, we'll follow them to wherever they're going and help Ezra out of there."

Hesitantly nodding in understanding, Sabine said, "Fine. Just… We'll have to be quick. I don't… want to lose Ezra."

Kanan placed a hand on her shoulder as he walked by. "Neither do I. And we won't. I promise, I'm not losing anything else to this monster."