Chapter Text
“Let me go!”
“Kid, wait—“
“No! ” Ezra shouts, pulling out of his former master’s grasp with enough momentum he stumbles back against a tree, breathing hard. The man’s gaze darkens and he takes a step forward. Maul’s too far away now to help him, Ezra knows. Too far to save him from his former master again.
And he knows the man did this, separated him from Maul, on purpose. He’s helpless without him.
“Kid, we have to go, now,” he says. “They’ll catch up with us otherwise.”
Ezra shakes his head wildly. “No. I’m not going with you. I’m never going with you. Never again.”
“Kid—“
“Don’t call me kid!” Ezra thrusts a hand out, and with it, a powerful wave of the Force that knocks his master back against a tree.
Ezra feels a heavy weight settle over his master’s end of their bond. He’s out cold. Swallowing, he turns to head back to where he and his master—former master former master former master—had left Maul to fight with the Seventh Sister.
He stumbles back through the undergrowth, pausing as he reaches the edge of the clearing. He remains in the shadows, watching for an opportunity to jump in.
Instead, he hears something that makes his blood run cold.
“Wanting to kill the boy is shallow-minded, but I would expect nothing less from the Emperor’s hunting dogs,” Maul snarls, blocking the Seventh Sister’s strike before pulling back and countering with one of his own. “You all have no vision, just as Sidious doesn’t.”
“And what would you do?” she counters, blocking him. “We were going to give him a quick death. You’re only prolonging it.”
“No, I gave him a second chance.”
“As your weapon.” She lunges again, nearly hitting him.
Maul laughs, a short, rough sound that sends chills up Ezra’s spine, as Maul lowers his head to the blade he’s barely holding at bay. But Ezra doesn’t need to be close to see the feral grin on his face as he looks her in the eyes again. “Perhaps. But what else could a boy that Dark be?”
Maul attacks her with a terrifying ferocity, driving her back until he has her backed up against a tree.
“Master?” Ezra calls then. He wants to do it himself. Seven had hurt him, not Maul.
Maul stiffens slightly, just for a moment. But that moment of hesitation is enough, apparently, for Seven to gain the upper hand again. She knees Maul in the chest, shoving him away before bringing her lightsaber up into a defensive position again.
“Apprentice, stay and fight!” Maul orders.
Ezra hesitates for half a second, fragments of loyalty and shattered trust begging him to stay at his master’s side.
Instead, he runs.
Kanan gasps, inhaling deeply as he opens his eyes and why the kriff is his head hurting so much what—
He sits up, groaning, and begins to take stock of his injuries. He still has his lightsaber, good. His head throbs like he got hit by a speeder, but nothing seems outright broken and there’s no blood that he can feel so he’s okay for now. He glances up, finally focusing on something other than himself.
Night has fallen.
He stands, wincing and rubbing his neck. He needs to find the kid.
His kid.
He starts walking, feeling for the threadbare bond they share, and tries to remember how he ended up with his own apprentice knocking him out. He remembers walking with Seven, coming upon the kid and the Shadow, the latter with two blades at his apprentice’s throat. He remembers Seven immediately moving to take out the Shadow and himself immediately moving to grab his apprentice and leave, letting the other two kill each other off like scorpions in a jar.
Only the kid hadn’t wanted to leave.
Even now, he’s screaming at himself for not just knocking the kid out if he had to and taking him back to the TIEs. It wouldn’t have been that hard, right?
Though apparently it had been.
He sighs, furious with himself, and continues pushing through the jungle. Seven had been right earlier, he has to admit; it does smell like something here died recently.
The jungle only gets darker as he continues to walk, the three moons providing scant light in between the large leaves. He’s tempted to pull his ‘saber out and use it for light, but the light is just as likely to attract the Shadow.
He refrains from using it.
He reaches the clearing the TIEs are in and heaves a sigh of relief, sitting down to wait just within the treeline for a sign of movement.
He’s not sure how long it’s been when he finally hears something crashing through the woods. He stiffens, staring at the treeline opposite the TIEs.
His apprentice bursts out of the trees.
The boy skids to a halt, breathing hard and staring up at the TIEs. He glances around the clearing before bolting to Kanan’s own TIE, trying to figure out how to get up to the hatch.
“Here,” Kanan calls, rising from his spot at the treeline and walking toward the boy. He catches sight of Kanan and spins on his heel, making to run.
“Kid!” Kanan calls.
“Don’t call me—“
“I’m helping you run away.”
The boy stops, but still doesn’t turn back. Kanan continues to approach slowly, speaking quietly so as to not spook him.
“Come with me. I have a TIE, we can get off this planet and—“
“No,” he says, voice surprisingly hard.
“No?”
The boy whirls, fury in his eyes as he stalks toward Kanan. “No I am not going with you! First I trusted Han, then I trusted– I trusted you, and now even Maul’s admitted—“
He stops suddenly, chest heaving, and Kanan gets the impression he’s about to cry. Finally he speaks up again.
“I’m not gonna let someone else take advantage of me. Get the kark away from me.”
“Kid, that’s not—“
“You tried—I trusted you, and you tried to kriffing kill me!” he finishes in a yell, visibly shaking from the anger.
“I was trying to save you, kid. I had a plan.”
“Then why the kriff didn’t you say so?!”
“I did!”
“Oh, so ‘trust me’ means you automatically have a plan? You kriffing choked me!”
“And I’m trying to make up for it!” The teen doesn’t respond, only breathing heavily. “I’m sorry, kid. Really. So let me show you, and make it up to you by helping you get out.”
The boy glares at him for a long moment before uttering a single word through gritted teeth.
“Fine.”