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Ezra didn’t know when he’d started crying. He just knew that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t stop. He lay face-down, shaking on the floor, the wounds on the bottoms of his feet throbbing. He whimpered, pressing himself against the floor as Maul stepped around him, his footsteps drawing closer to Ezra’s ear.
“Get up,” Maul growled.
“I – I can't,” Ezra said, forcing the words out between sobs.
He cried out as Maul grabbed his hair, dragging him up off the ground. As his weight shifted to his feet, Ezra screamed, fighting against Maul’s grip. Blinding pain shot through Ezra’s whole body as he struggled.
Maul seized Ezra around the waist, lifting him off the ground. Ezra let out a relieved sob as the pressure lifted off of his injured feet. He cried out again as Maul hoisted him over his shoulder.
“Quiet,” Maul said, tightening his grip around Ezra.
Ezra couldn’t do anything except cry quietly as Maul carried him through the twisting corridors of the fortress. He was in too much pain to keep fighting.
When they reached Ezra’s room – cell, it’s a cell, don’t call it anything else – Maul opened the door and shoved him through it, throwing him to the floor.
Ezra’s head was spinning as Maul shut the door, locking Ezra in the room. With a quiet groan, Ezra dragged himself up onto his hands and knees. He wasn’t even going to try to stand. His body aching from the bruises that covered it, he crawled across the room and collapsed onto the pallet in the corner.
Hours passed before the door opened again. Ezra hadn’t moved from where he lay face down on the pallet, sniffling quietly into the blanket Maul had given him a week ago.
Ezra flinched as the now-familiar sound of Maul’s metal feet against the stone floor echoed through the cell. He squeezed his eyes shut as the man approached, bracing himself for more pain. But it never came. Instead, Ezra could hear the sound of something being set down beside the pallet.
Slowly, Ezra opened his eyes and turned his head. Maul had knelt down beside the pallet and was placing a ration bar and a cup of water within Ezra’s reach.
Ezra raised his head and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand before glaring at Maul. If his master was expecting thanks after what he’d just done, he had another thing coming.
“Don’t,” Maul growled. “You brought this on yourself. You wouldn’t be in this position if you hadn’t tried to escape.”
“I wasn’t trying to escape,” Ezra said, his voice breaking. It was even true this time. He’d long since given up on trying to run away. He knew there was nowhere else he could go, anyway. He’d just need to get away from Maul, to find somewhere to hide until he could bring himself to face his master again after his most recent bout of brutal training. He’d run from the cave into Dathomir’s forest, but Maul had caught him within minutes and dragged him back, ignoring his attempts to explain himself.
“Do you really expect me to believe that?” Maul asked.
“It’s true,” Ezra muttered, resting his head back on the pallet. He didn’t really care if Maul believed him or not. It didn’t matter. Either way, nothing would change. He was still trapped here. Maul was still in control. He still would have been punished like this one day, anyway.
Ezra gasped in pain as Maul gripped his hair, wrenching his head back until Ezra was looking into his eyes.
“Don’t forget that you swore yourself to me,” he said.
“Because you killed my family and imprisoned me until I did what you wanted,” Ezra growled.
He cried out as Maul wrenched his head further back.
“Your reasons are irrelevant,” Maul said. “You are my apprentice now, and I won’t tolerate being lied to.”
“I’m not lying,” Ezra hissed, struggling against Maul’s grip on him.
“If you ever try to run again, the consequences will be far worse than this,” Maul said. “Do you understand me?”
Ezra whimpered as Maul punctuated the question by tightening his grip on Ezra’s hair.
“Y—yes, Master,” Ezra said.
Ezra groaned in pain as Maul released him, his neck muscles straining as his head dropped back down.
Seconds later, Ezra realized that Maul’s fingers were gently carding through his hair. He tensed up, bracing himself for more pain.
“I thought I told you to cut this a week ago,” Maul said.
Ezra let out a low growl as he pulled away from Maul’s touch. Thankfully, Maul didn’t retaliate this time. He simply stood up and crossed to the other side of the room. As the door opened, Ezra lifted his head again.
“Wait,” he said. “Please don’t lock the door.”
“Why would it matter?” Maul asked, his voice cold. “You can't walk, anyway.”
Then it doesn’t matter if the door is unlocked, does it? Ezra thought. But he knew better than to say it.
“Please,” he said, his voice shaking.
Without a word, Maul left the room and shut the door. Ezra held his breath, listening, waiting. But he didn’t hear the click of the lock being activated.
He settled his head back onto the pallet with a small sigh of relief. He still wouldn’t be able to go anywhere, but at least he wasn’t locked in this time.