(A/N)- THE LONG-AWAITED EZRA VS. MAUL APPRENTICE FIC!

The original idea for this fic I had pretty early on, I think either right after "Twilight of the Apprentice" or when Season Three was first airing. I never got around to actually writing it and of course miscellaneous Season Three things made it a little canon-incompatible but after I wrote my fic "Cracks In The Mirror" I realized I could very easily slot the idea in as a sequel follow-up. Things just sort of clicked from there, and I think it actually works even better this way! I have been so excited to write this and I hope you all enjoy it too.

As mentioned, this is a sequel to my fic "Cracks In The Mirror" and its follow-up "Splinters". I highly recommend reading those first before reading this one; it's a bit more on the continuity-heavy side and several references are made to events in those stories. For those of you who've already read those and are returning, welcome back, we're in for a wild ride!

With all that out of the way, let's get started!

Disclaimer: Hello yes, I don't own Star Wars, though I'd probably do a better job than the knuckleheads they've got in charge currently.

Prologue: Creeping Shadows

The two white suns burned down with an unforgiving heat, but the dark-cloaked figure barely felt it. Metal feet shuffled and stumbled through the loose sand. Dry wind whispered around his horned head.

He was close. He knew he was. The glowing blue presence in the Force, maddeningly serene and full of light, had been on his peripheral senses for days now. It had tried moving away, but Maul had dogged it every step, following it out into the wilderness, across endless dunes of sand, through rocky quarries, along ridgelines and down into gulleys.

Like a beacon he had followed it, and at first it hadn't wavered. But today there was something... distracting.

His concentration had been slipping out. Instead of focusing on Kenobi, he kept drifting to something else. Something undefined at the back of his thoughts.

Maul growled, increasing his pace and focusing harder. He pushed aside the thirst burning at his throat. The ache in his limbs from having been walking for days now, with little rest. The irritation of the sand silting through his metal joints. He called the Force to him, feeling its chill settle in his bones, cooling him against the hot Tatooine suns.

Kenobi was further away again. Maul strained to try and pinpoint his presence, letting all sound and sight fade out, losing himself in the Force until—

And there it was again. That infernal prickle.

Maul's eyes snapped open. He came to a halt, clenching his teeth and his fists. His frustration flared. Kenobi would be lost to him if this kept up. He'd have to backtrack back to his ship and circle around and around in hopes of picking him up again.

Maul prepared to shove the distraction, whatever it was, away again and push even harder through the Dark Side. But just as he was about to smother it... he hesitated.

His fidgeting stopped, confusion dazzling his senses.

There was something about the niggling presence, some odd sensation, something... familiar.

This time, Maul reached out to touch the irritation, feel it out, sense what it was. His mind tentatively brushed against the spark tugging at the back of his thoughts.

Pain washed over him in a sudden cold flash. He gasped, stumbling back, recognizing the presence with a rush of clarity.

Ezra.

In his anger at the boy's rejection on Dathomir he had severed their Force bond. Hacked away furiously at the threads of their connection until they were nothing but tatters. He was certain the boy had done so on his end as well. But some thin thread, some sliver or pinprick of connection must have still remained and been left behind.

That pinprick was screaming out in agony. Maul could feel traces of it through the Force, Ezra's fear, his pain.

He was suffering.

A roiling ball of conflicting emotions hit him. Horror, at whatever was being done to Ezra. Anger, at the Jedi and the Rebels for letting it happen, at whoever had dared to touch his apprentice. And... hesitation. Indecision.

Maul glanced towards the horizon frantically, clinging to Kenobi's presence. He was so close and yet... and yet...

Now that he knew what the flutter in the Force was it wouldn't leave him. Ezra's pain called out to him. Desperate. Terrified.

Maul found himself now straining after it instead. The sliver wavered and slipped out of his grasp, elusive and fragile. Maul stood there frozen, his mind scratching out, trying to hold onto the hairline thread.

His feet were moving before he realized it, turning him about-faced, back towards the edge of the wastes.

Away from Kenobi.

He snarled in frustration, even as he increased his pace.

Kenobi would have to wait. Maul had been patient this long, he could afford to delay his revenge.

He had a feeling the man wouldn't be going anywhere.

-SWR-

The old Jedi watched from a safe distance as the black-cloaked figure stopped in place a long moment before it abruptly jerked around and rushed off in the opposite direction.

Obi-Wan stepped out from under the ledge of the high rock outcropping in concern.

He'd been dismayed and slightly irritated when he'd first sensed Maul's presence arriving on Tatooine, leading the former Sith on a merry chase through the desert, away from civilization and people he could hurt. But now, his old and persistent enemy suddenly giving up the chase and leaving was even more disconcerting.

Maul was not known for stopping a fight.

He observed quietly as the Zabrak faded into the horizon. The Force swirled in troubled eddies around him as he slowly disappeared from sight.

"Oh dear..." Obi-Wan sighed.

He hoped feverishly, wherever Maul was going, that he wouldn't be able to hurt anyone.

(A/N)- RETURN OF THE CHAPTER NOTES!

1. As you've probably gathered, this prologue takes place during the events of "Cracks In The Mirror". The way I figure it, only sensing Ezra in immediate danger could possibly have been enough to shake Maul from his single-minded revenge quest against Obi-Wan. So yeah, Maul senses Ezra's ordeal on the Chimaera and is immediately all like, "Crap, hang on, I gotta go make sure my kid's okay."

2. That being said, Maul's way of "checking up on Ezra and making sure he's okay" is, uh... well let's just say it's not going to be very fun for the boy. At all.

I have eight chapters of this baby pre-written and am planning on a regular weekly update schedule, so look forward to a new chapter next week.

Read and review my darlings!