Chapter Text
"Dumb junk bots!" Angry zabrak announced his entrance into war supplier's place by that.
There were a lot of droid models standing proudly for display. The walls of this rather small room were decorated with inactive weapons, guns, blasters and alike. The Supplier, known by no other name, was the one who supplied lower rate warriors with cheap droid armies, light yet intact weapons, and even servants and slaves, come the need.
The Supplier sat calmly, not surprised by the reaction. He'd dealt with customer complaints a lot. That Zabrak was one of his regular customers, he'd developed certain friendly bond with him by now. Either that, or he didn't have any nerves left to spare today. He had to deal with the capture of few quite valuable (and profitable sellable) group of rebels today already.
"Sorry, Maul. You know how hard it is for me - to get my hands on quality product nowadays"
"Who came up with a snowman design for droids?! One blind man dealt with five of them. A blind man, do you hear me? They are too easily overpowered. I'll need a lot of better droids, weapons, and..." Zabrak would have raged on, but froze suddenly, looking across the room, where recent prisoners did the same in fear.
A group of oh so familiar rebels were sitting on the floor, their hands tied behind their backs; they were well secured by the Supplier's guard bots. Two of them - as Supplier has figured, the Force wielders - had collars around their necks, preventing them from using the Force.
"Liking what you see, Maul? Caught this bunch today. Plannin' on sellin' them later for a good price." The Supplier caught his surprised look, "Hey, you know any of them?"
A sly smile appeared on Maul's face, his eyes meeting fearful look of the youngest of the rebels for a moment.
"Heard of them." He acted much more pacified suddenly, "So, about the droid armies."
"Right, so what will your order be today?" Supplier asked, sitting next to the only table in the room.
"Almost the usual. I need to provide for Shadow Collective needs. I'll need a good amount of weapons and ammos, and maybe a couple of servant droids for my way back." Maul sat across the table, still smiling about something on his mind.
"And by a couple ya mean?"
"About 25... no, all 30. I've only got unsightly cargo ship with me. I'm here for the weapons and ammo mostly. I'll need to provide for..." Maul took nearby data-pad, and wrote down a number, passing it to the other.
"Alright, my boy. That will be..." Supplier started counting up. Maul took his time to glance at the rebels once again, stopping his look on the one who interested him the most.
Young boy with hair of blue colour was staring down at the floor, close to his friends.
"Is he staring at... all of us?" Ezra's voice had trembling hope within it. That sith lord couldn't possibly still be obsessed with him.
"Ezra, stay calm. We've learned by now, that Supplier won't let anyone harm his "properties" easily. You don't have to worry about him killing us." Older blind man tried to reassure him.
"Being killed is the least of my concerns..." younger one whispered under his breath. His head was making up scenarios, and every single one was worse than other.
The Supplier finished his countings.
"And that will be..." he passed the data-pad over to Maul, "That is including discount, for you are one of my favourite customers, my boy."
"That number does seem generous of you, but I'm willing to pay the full price today" Maul shrugged with a smile, then stood up and walked to the other side of the room, his eyes closed.
"I'm flattered to be one of your favourites, Supplier. Truth be told, you too are the favourite supplier of mine. My only, too." He stopped, looking down at the scared gang, now so close to him. "So I believe it won't sound too selfish of me, if I'll order one last cherry on top of my order.
A blueberry rather, he thought to himself, but didn't voice it.
"Knew you'd ask for it," Supplier smiled, approaching him, "So, let me take a guess - which one. The older Jedi, innit? Wanna bring him to the Dark Side with ye, or something?"
"Take another guess." Maul kept his eyes on Supplier alone, to avoid giving hints.
"Huh... Ah, indeed. The Mandalorian. Of course you'd want to collect your people around."
"Sounds a little romantic, but no."
"...The beast? Oh, you dirty-"
"Miss again." Zabrak turned his head just in time to catch Ezra's hateful glare on himself. He knew there was fear hidden behind the put-on hatred.
"The boy? My boy, Maul, you're losing a great deal here! He hardly knows how to hold a lightsaber. This weakling won't last on the battlefield for too long, he's too stubborn to be a servant either."
"Then count it as my help to you" he turned back to The Supplier, "I'll pay double any price you name, for the boy you'll have, honsetly, no luck selling otherwise."
Supplier rubbed his chin, considering his options, then asked, one last time just to clarify.
"Why though? Why this boy?"
"He's got pretty eyes" Maul replied without taking his look away from The Supplier.
"Huff, alright. Anything for you, my boy."
"Oh no..." Ezra's pointless protest went by unnoticed.
"What will the final price be?"
"Know my generosity. He's yours for free." Maul reached his hand for the Supplier's, saying formal words of gratefulness.
"I'd still like to make this official. You know, with papers and all."
"No problem, will do. Do you want him written in as what? Slave, servant, a pros-"
"We'll talk about that with the papers in front of us. Thank you, my friend. You can always count on my help."
The two men left the room, leaving the gang with droids watching them.
"Kanan..." Ezra stuttered, not sure how to voice his thoughts at the moment.
"Ezra, it will be fine" Kanan was lying through his teeth, "You know we'll break free. Wherever he'll take you, we'll find you and get you back in no time. Just..." Words caught up in his throat. He knew he had to say a horrible thing to assure safety of the boy he grew so attached to.
Ezra leaned closer to his Jedi mentor, whispering, "I'm scared".
"Everything will be fine, just..." He had to say that aloud now, "You will have to... We'll need you to behave for him."
Ezra rose back up so fast he almost hit Kanan's jaw on his way up. Their eyes would have met, if Kanan wasn't blind, perhaps.
"What?!"
"Listen, untill we can find you, we... you need to... get his trust. I mean, he needs to believe, that you believe that you're not escaping him anytime soon. Then, when the time to rescue you comes - it will be easier for us, since he'll be less prepared for it. You've got to make sure he doesn't suspect a thing. And you've got to stay safe and well too."
Every rebel agreed with Kanan's made up plan, trying hard to convince Ezra it was going to be exactly like it.
Meanwhile, the security droids recieved some orders. They picked Ezra up by shoulders and led out.
The boy gave one last look at his space family. He only felt bad he couldn't hide his tears from them.